Abstract
We used an integrative approach combining cranio-dental characters, mitochondrial and nuclear data and acoustic data to show the presence in the genus Miniopterus of a cryptic species from the Maghreb region. This species was previously recognised as Miniopterus schreibersii (Kuhl, 1817). Miniopterus maghrebensis sp. nov. can be differentiated from M. schreibersii sensu stricto on the basis of cranial characters and from mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite evidence. Although slight external morphological and acoustic differences were noted between the two species, these criteria alone did not allow reliable species identification from live animals. Based on the specimens identified morphologically and/or genetically, the distribution range of M. maghrebensis sp. nov. extends from northern Morocco to south of the High Atlas Mountains and northern Tunisia. The new cryptic species is found in sympatry with M. schreibersii s.str. near coastal regions of North Africa.
Highlights
Species discoveries and descriptions have gone through different phases and since the 1960's the number of mammal species described per year has continually increased, and the 'species accumulation' curve shows no indication of reaching an asymptote (Reeder et al, 2007)
It is important to note that the morphological features in M. schreibersii and M. pallidus as well as across most members of this genus are strikingly similar; it can be challenging to reliably identify cryptic species based on morphological characteristics only (e.g. Monadjem et al, 2010)
M. schreibersii s.str. and Miniopterus sp. nov. are generally similar for the measurements investigated
Summary
Species discoveries and descriptions have gone through different phases and since the 1960's the number of mammal species described per year has continually increased, and the 'species accumulation' curve shows no indication of reaching an asymptote (Reeder et al, 2007). Within the order Chiroptera, the number of species per family varies greatly, from a single recognised species in the Craseonycteridae family (Puechmaille et al, 2011) to over 400 species in the Vespertilionidae family (Simmons, 2005) The latter have recently been split into three families: Miniopteridae (Mein & Tupinier, 1977; MillerButterworth et al, 2007), Cistugidae (Lack et al, 2010) and Vespertilionidae s.str. As in other bat genera (e.g. Hipposideros; Thong et al, 2012a; 2012b), the implementation of molecular techniques in combination with morphological analyses has greatly helped the recognition and description of many cryptic species within Miniopterus (e.g. Goodman, 2009; Furman et al, 2010; Goodman et al, 2010; Bilgin et al, 2012; Monadjem et al, 2013; Šrámek et al, 2013)
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