Taxonomic revision and phylogenetic position of the flying squirrel genus Biswamoyopterus (Mammalia, Rodentia, Sciuridae, Pteromyini) on the northern Indo-China peninsula.

Guogang Li,Rui-Chang Quan,Bin Yang,Tao Qin,Phouthong Phothisath,Ye Htet Lwin,Song Li,Kyaw-Win Maung

doi:10.3897/zookeys.939.31764

Abstract

The flying squirrel genus Biswamoyopterus (Rodentia: Sciuridae: Pteromyini) was once considered to contain three species, Biswamoyopterus biswasi from northeastern India, B. laoensis from central Laos and B. gaoligongensis from southwest China, all identified from morphological characteristics of one or two specimens. However, based on similar morphological characteristics of two samples of the genus Biswamoyopterus collected recently from northern Laos and northern Myanmar, and the small genetic distances on mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA between them, the results strongly support these two samples as representatives of the same species. The phylogenetic analyses strongly support Biswamoyopterus as an independent genus of Pteromyini, as a sister group to Aeromys. Biswamoyopterus biswasi is distributed in the northern Indo-China peninsula, where it is exposed to a series of threats, such as intense hunting activity, illegal trade, and rapid habitat loss; this should warrant its classification as critically endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria. Here, the molecular data for genus Biswamoyopterus and two new specimen records from northern Laos and northern Myanmar are presented.

Highlights

Flying squirrels (Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae: Pteromyini), occurring in northern coniferous forests to the tropical lowlands of North America and Eurasia, are great masters of gliding locomotion using well-developed membrane structures (Thorington et al 2002)
The results showed that Eupetaurus, Aeromys, and Biswamoyopterus as a reciprocally monophyletic clade (Figure 8)
According to morphological comparisons of our samples and those from previous studies (Saha 1981; Sanamxay et al 2013; Li et al 2019), Biswamoyopterus specimens L35 from northern Laos and M644 from northern Myanmar are confirmed as representing the genus Biswamoyopterus

Summary

Introduction

Flying squirrels (Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae: Pteromyini), occurring in northern coniferous forests to the tropical lowlands of North America and Eurasia, are great masters of gliding locomotion using well-developed membrane structures (Thorington et al 2002). Pteromyini comprises 15 monophyletic genera nested within Sciuridae (Mercer and Roth 2003; Wilson and Reader 2005), with high external morphological diversification between genera. It is useful to understand the taxonomic theories behind these genera, based on skull characteristics and external morphology (Ellerman 1940; Ellerman and Morrison-Scott 1950; Corbet and Hill 1992; Nowak 1999; Thorington et al 2002; Wilson and Reader 2005) (Table 1). The genus Biswamoyopterus was described by Saha in 1981. Identified on respective morphological characteristics of one or two specimens, it comprises three species, Biswamoyopterus biswasi Saha, Ellerman (1940)

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