Myotis Research Articles

Description of Ixodeslanigeri sp. nov., a new hard tick species (Acari, Ixodidae) collected from mouse-eared bats (Vespertilionidae, Myotis) in Vietnam.

Historically, for more than one and a half centuries, only one so-called "long-legged bat tick" species, i.e., Ixodesvespertilionis Koch was known to science. However, during the past decade, it was recognized on a molecular basis that long-legged ixodid ticks associated with bats may represent at least six species. Of these, until recently, five have been morphologically described. In this study, Ixodes ticks were collected from two Myotis species in southeastern Asia, Vietnam. Based on the morphological and molecular characteristics of the female, nymph and larva, Ixodeslanigeri Hornok, sp. nov. is described here. The male is unknown. Like other members of the Ixodesariadnae complex, I.lanigeri Hornok apparently shows a preference for vesper bats as its typical hosts. In this context, host-association and geographical separation may explain the evolutionary divergence of I.lanigeri Hornok from its closest relative occurring on Murinahilgendorfi Peters in East Asia, Japan, because no Myotis or Murina spp. have overlapping distribution between Vietnam and the main islands of Japan. On the other hand, supposing that (similarly to I.ariadnae) I.lanigeri Hornok probably occurs on other myotine bats and knowing that several Myotis species indigenous in Vietnam have a broad geographical range in southern and southeastern Asia, the new tick species most likely has a widespread distribution in this area.

Extensive longevity and DNA virus-driven adaptation in nearctic Myotis bats.

The rich species diversity of bats encompasses extraordinary adaptations, including extreme longevity and tolerance to infectious disease. While traditional approaches using genetic screens in model organisms have uncovered some fundamental processes underlying these traits, model organisms do not possess the variation required to understand the evolution of traits with complex genetic architectures. In contrast, the advent of genomics at tree-of-life scales enables us to study the genetic interactions underlying these processes by leveraging millions of years of evolutionary trial-and-error. Here, we use the rich species diversity of the genus Myotis - one of the longest-living clades of mammals - to study the evolution of longevity-associated traits and infectious disease using functional evolutionary genomics. We generated reference genome assemblies and cell lines for 8 closely-related (∼11 MYA) species of Myotis rich in phenotypic and life history diversity. Using genome-wide screens of positive selection, analysis of structural variation and copy number variation, and functional experiments in primary cell lines, we identify new patterns of adaptation in longevity, cancer resistance, and viral interactions both within Myotis and across bats. We find that the rapid evolution of lifespan in Myotis has some of the most significant variations in cancer risk across mammals, and demonstrate a unique DNA damage response in the long-lived M. lucifugus using primary cell culture models. Furthermore, we find evidence of abundant adaptation in response to DNA viruses, but not RNA viruses, in Myotis and other bats. This is in contrast to these patterns of adaptation in humans, which might contribute to the importance of bats as a reservoir of zoonotic viruses. Together, our results demonstrate the utility of leveraging natural variation to understand the genomics of traits with implications for human health and suggest important pleiotropic relationships between infectious disease tolerance and cancer resistance.

Soundwaves in the North Atlantic: Detecting the offshore bats of Sable Island

As Sable Island National Park Reserve approaches a decade of protection under Parks Canada, new data on the island’s biodiversity is useful for informing management. An ultrasonic autonomous recording unit was deployed for 15 months over two years (October 5, 2015-January 8, 2017) to quantitatively characterize the presence of bats on Sable Island. A total of 1721 echolocation passes were identified across the 32 nights that bats were detected on the island (6.9% of total recording nights). Of the nights that bats were detected, Lasionycteris noctivagans (Silver-haired Bat) was present on 65% of nights, Myotis species were present on 53% of nights, Lasiurus borealis (Eastern Red Bat) was present on 25% of nights, and Lasiurus cinereus (Hoary Bat) was present on 6.25% of nights. All recordings were captured between late-September and early-December. Evidence of bat species on Sable Island, whether deliberately stopping during migration or brought there by external factors such as weather, highlights that the island may be more important for bats than previously thought. Keywords: bats, bioacoustics, migration, monitoring, Sable Island

Signals of positive selection in genomes of palearctic Myotis-bats coexisting with a fungal pathogen

Disease can act as a driving force in shaping genetic makeup across populations, even species, if the impacts influence a particularly sensitive part of their life cycles. White-nose disease is caused by a fungal pathogen infecting bats during hibernation. The mycosis has caused massive population declines of susceptible species in North America, particularly in the genus Myotis. However, Myotis bats appear to tolerate infection in Eurasia, where the fungal pathogen has co-evolved with its bat hosts for an extended period of time. Therefore, with susceptible and tolerant populations, the fungal disease provides a unique opportunity to tease apart factors contributing to tolerance at a genomic level to and gain an understanding of the evolution of non-harmful in host-parasite interactions. To investigate if the fungal disease has caused adaptation on a genomic level in Eurasian bat species, we adopted both whole-genome sequencing approaches and a literature search to compile a set of 300 genes from which to investigate signals of positive selection in genomes of 11 Eurasian bats at the codon-level. Our results indicate significant positive selection in 38 genes, many of which have a marked role in responses to infection. Our findings suggest that white-nose syndrome may have applied a significant selective pressure on Eurasian Myotis-bats in the past, which can contribute their survival in co-existence with the pathogen. Our findings provide an insight on the selective pressure pathogens afflict on their hosts using methodology that can be adapted to other host-pathogen study systems.

Taxonomic, Functional, and Phylogenetic Diversity of Bats in Urban and Suburban Environments in Southern México

Urbanization is one of the leading causes of habitat loss, which has increased significantly in tropical regions in recent years, leading to the loss of species, their ecological functions, and evolutionary history. To determine the effect of urbanization on the diversity of bat communities in urban and suburban environments, we analyzed the α and β taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversities at four sites along urbanization gradients surrounding a rapidly expanding city (Oaxaca City) in southern Mexico. We recorded bats using conventional techniques such as mist nets and acoustic monitoring. We calculated the diversity of bats in four sites with different urbanization conditions: urban (1), suburban (1), and rural (2). To assess the degree of total differentiation and components of bat turnover and nestedness between sites, we calculated the β taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversities. A total of 33 bat species were recorded. The highest taxonomic and functional diversity was observed in the Center of Oaxaca (the site with the highest level of urbanization). In contrast, the highest phylogenetic diversity was found in the West (the site with the lowest level of urbanization). The total β taxonomic diversity was higher than the functional and phylogenetic diversity. Regarding the contributions of turnover and nestedness, turnover made a more significant contribution than nestedness to the taxonomic and phylogenetic β diversity. In contrast, functional nestedness contributed more to the functional β diversity than turnover. Tadarida brasiliensis, Desmodus rotundus, Sturnira hondurensis, and S. parvidens were recorded in all three urbanization conditions. In the most urbanized site, four Myotis species were recorded: M. fortidens, M. keaysi, M. thysanodes, and M. velifer. We suggest that the analysis of different dimensions of diversity is essential and should be considered to strengthen conservation strategies; moreover, we suggest the preservation of native vegetation mosaics and water bodies within the city to maintain bat diversity.

Distinct Genes with Similar Functions Underlie Convergent Evolution in Myotis Bat Ecomorphs.

Convergence offers an opportunity to explore to what extent evolution can be predictable when genomic composition and environmental triggers are similar. Here, we present an emergent model system to study convergent evolution in nature in a mammalian group, the bat genus Myotis. Three foraging strategies-gleaning, trawling, and aerial hawking, each characterized by different sets of phenotypic features-have evolved independently multiple times in different biogeographic regions in isolation for millions of years. To investigate the genomic basis of convergence and explore the functional genomic changes linked to ecomorphological convergence, we sequenced and annotated 17 new genomes and screened 16,426 genes for positive selection and associations between relative evolutionary rates and foraging strategies across 30 bat species representing all Myotis ecomorphs across geographic regions as well as among sister groups. We identify genomic changes that describe both phylogenetic and ecomorphological trends. We infer that colonization of new environments may have first required changes in genes linked to hearing sensory perception, followed by changes linked to fecundity and development, metabolism of carbohydrates, and heme degradation. These changes may be linked to prey acquisition and digestion and match phylogenetic trends. Our findings also suggest that the repeated evolution of ecomorphs does not always involve changes in the same genes but rather in genes with the same molecular functions such as developmental and cellular processes.

Complete mitochondrial genome of Penicillidia dufourii (Diptera: Hippoboscoidea: Nycteribiidae) and phylogenetic relationship.

Penicillidia dufourii (Westwood 1834) is a specialized parasite categorized under family Nycteribiidae that prefers to parasitize the body surface of various bats under the genus Myotis. Many species of the family Nycteribiidae are carriers of various pathogens; however, research on P. dufourii remains scarce, and studies on its molecular identification and population genetic structure are still lacking. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of P. dufourii was elucidated for the first time using Illumina sequencing. The mitochondrial genome is 15,354bp in size and encodes approximately 37 genes, including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, and 1 control region. Analysis of 13 protein-coding genes revealed that UUA, UCA, CGA, and GGA were the most common codons, while nad4L had the fastest evolutionary rate and cox1 the slowest. Phylogenetic analysis based on the mitochondrial genome indicated that P. dufourii is clustered with other species of the family Nycteribiidae and is most closely related to Nycteribia parvula and Phthiridium szechuanum.

Natural mercury exposure of European insectivorous bats may exceed a recognized toxicity threshold

Heavy metals are an important group of toxic substances harmful for many organisms. Of these, mercury is one of the most monitored in the environment. Several matrices are used for the monitoring of environmental load, including a range of organisms; bats, however, have only been examined rarely. Insectivorous bats are apex predators threatened by several human interventions in their natural environment, including heavy metal pollution. The aim of this study was to analyze the content of total mercury in the fur, flight membrane, and pectoral muscle of greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis). Total mercury concentrations were also measured in carabid beetles from the catch locality Zastávka u Brna. Samples were obtained from 43 bat carcasses at two different localities in the Czech Republic (Zastávka u Brna, Malá Morávka). Total mercury content varied between 1.76–72.20 µg/g in fur, 0.04–0.14 µg/g in skin, and 0.05–0.20 µg/g in muscle. Total mercury values in the fur of some individuals from Malá Morávka exceeded the recognized toxicity limit. Furthermore, there was a significant difference (p < 0.001) in content of total mercury in fur between localities, and there was a clear effect of age on concentrations in fur, skin, and muscle, the concentrations being significantly correlated (fur and skin rs = 0.783; fur and muscle rs = 0.716; skin and muscle rs = 0.884). These findings confirm the usefulness of fur samples from living bats for biomonitoring mercury burden in the environment.

Temperature sensitivity of bat antibodies links metabolic state of bats with antigen-recognition diversity

The bat immune system features multiple unique properties such as dampened inflammatory responses and increased tissue protection, explaining their long lifespan and tolerance to viral infections. Here, we demonstrated that body temperature fluctuations corresponding to different physiological states in bats exert a large impact on their antibody repertoires. At elevated temperatures typical for flight, IgG from the bat species Myotis myotis and Nyctalus noctula show elevated antigen binding strength and diversity, recognizing both pathogen-derived antigens and autoantigens. The opposite is observed at temperatures reflecting inactive physiological states. IgG antibodies of human and other mammals, or antibodies of birds do not appear to behave in a similar way. Importantly, diversification of bat antibody specificities results in preferential recognition of damaged endothelial and epithelial cells, indicating an anti-inflammatory function. The temperature-sensitivity of bat antibodies is mediated by the variable regions of immunoglobulin molecules. Additionally, we uncover specific molecular features of bat IgG, such as low thermodynamic stability and implication of hydrophobic interactions in antigen binding as well as high prevalence of polyreactivity. Overall, our results extend the understanding of bat tolerance to disease and inflammation and highlight the link between metabolism and immunity.

Unraveling genomic features and phylogenomics through the analysis of three Mexican endemic Myotis genomes.

Genomic resource development for non-model organisms is rapidly progressing, seeking to uncover molecular mechanisms and evolutionary adaptations enabling thriving in diverse environments. Limited genomic data for bat species hinder insights into their evolutionary processes, particularly within the diverse Myotis genus of the Vespertilionidae family. In Mexico, 15 Myotis species exist, with three-M. vivesi, M. findleyi, and M. planiceps-being endemic and of conservation concern. We obtained samples of Myotis vivesi, M. findleyi, and M. planiceps for genomic analysis. Each of three genomic DNA was extracted, sequenced, and assembled. The scaffolding was carried out utilizing the M. yumanensis genome via a genome-referenced approach within the ntJoin program. GapCloser was employed to fill gaps. Repeat elements were characterized, and gene prediction was done via ab initio and homology methods with MAKER pipeline. Functional annotation involved InterproScan, BLASTp, and KEGG. Non-coding RNAs were annotated with INFERNAL, and tRNAscan-SE. Orthologous genes were clustered using Orthofinder, and a phylogenomic tree was reconstructed using IQ-TREE. We present genome assemblies of these endemic species using Illumina NovaSeq 6000, each exceeding 2.0 Gb, with over 90% representing single-copy genes according to BUSCO analyses. Transposable elements, including LINEs and SINEs, constitute over 30% of each genome. Helitrons, consistent with Vespertilionids, were identified. Values around 20,000 genes from each of the three assemblies were derived from gene annotation and their correlation with specific functions. Comparative analysis of orthologs among eight Myotis species revealed 20,820 groups, with 4,789 being single copy orthogroups. Non-coding RNA elements were annotated. Phylogenomic tree analysis supported evolutionary chiropterans' relationships. These resources contribute significantly to understanding gene evolution, diversification patterns, and aiding conservation efforts for these endangered bat species.

Clutter resilience via auditory stream segregation in echolocating greater mouse-eared bats.

Bats use echolocation to navigate and hunt in darkness, and must in that process segregate target echoes from unwanted clutter echoes. Bats may do this by approaching a target at steep angles relative to the plane of the background, utilizing their directional transmission and receiving systems to minimize clutter from background objects, but it remains unknown how bats negotiate clutter that cannot be spatially avoided. Here, we tested the hypothesis that when movement no longer offers spatial release, echolocating bats mitigate clutter by calling at lower source levels and longer call intervals to ease auditory streaming. We trained five greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis) to land on a spherical loudspeaker with two microphones attached. We used a phantom-echo setup, where the loudspeaker/target transmitted phantom clutter echoes by playing back the bats' own calls at time delays of 1, 3 and 5 ms with a virtual target strength 7 dB higher than the physical target. We show that the bats successfully landed on the target, irrespective of the clutter echo delays. Rather than decreasing their source levels, the bats used similar source level distributions in clutter and control trials. Similarly, the bats did not increase their call intervals, but instead used the same distribution of call intervals across control and clutter trials. These observations reject our hypothesis, leading us to conclude that bats display great resilience to clutter via short auditory integration times and acute auditory stream segregation rather than via biosonar adjustments.

Automated echolocation classifiers vary in accuracy for northeastern U.S. bat species.

Acoustic surveys of bat echolocation calls are an important management tool for determining presence and probable absence of threatened and endangered bat species. In the northeastern United States, software programs such as Bat Call Identification (BCID), Kaleidoscope Pro (KPro), and Sonobat can automatically classify ultrasonic detector sound files, yet the programs' accuracy in correctly classifying calls to species has not been independently assessed. We used 1,500 full-spectrum reference calls with known identities for nine northeastern United States bat species to test the accuracy of these programs using calculations of Positive Predictive Value (PPV), Negative Predictive Value (NPV), Sensitivity (SN), Specificity (SP), Overall Accuracy, and No Information Rate. We found that BCID performed less accurately than other programs, likely because it only operates on zero-crossing data and may be less accurate for recordings converted from full-spectrum to zero-crossing. NPV and SP values were high across all species categories for SonoBat and KPro, indicating these programs' success at avoiding false positives. However, PPV and SN values were relatively low, particularly for individual Myotis species, indicating these programs are prone to false negatives. SonoBat and KPro performed better when distinguishing Myotis species from non-Myotis species. We expect less accuracy from these programs for acoustic recordings collected under normal working conditions, and caution that a bat acoustic expert should verify automatically classified files when making species-specific regulatory or conservation decisions.

The devil is in the detail: Environmental variables frequently used for habitat suitability modeling lack information for forest-dwelling bats in Germany.

In response to the pressing challenges of the ongoing biodiversity crisis, the protection of endangered species and their habitats, as well as the monitoring of invasive species are crucial. Habitat suitability modeling (HSM) is often treated as the silver bullet to address these challenges, commonly relying on generic variables sourced from widely available datasets. However, for species with high habitat requirements, or for modeling the suitability of habitats within the geographic range of a species, variables at a coarse level of detail may fall short. Consequently, there is potential value in considering the incorporation of more targeted data, which may extend beyond readily available land cover and climate datasets. In this study, we investigate the impact of incorporating targeted land cover variables (specifically tree species composition) and vertical structure information (derived from LiDAR data) on HSM outcomes for three forest specialist bat species (Barbastella barbastellus, Myotis bechsteinii, and Plecotus auritus) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, compared to commonly utilized environmental variables, such as generic land-cover classifications (e.g., Corine Land Cover) and climate variables (e.g., Bioclim). The integration of targeted variables enhanced the performance of habitat suitability models for all three bat species. Furthermore, our results showed a high difference in the distribution maps that resulted from using different levels of detail in environmental variables. This underscores the importance of making the effort to generate the appropriate variables, rather than simply relying on commonly used ones, and the necessity of exercising caution when using habitat models as a tool to inform conservation strategies and spatial planning efforts.

Superfast Lombard response in free-flying, echolocating bats

Acoustic cues are crucial to communication, navigation, and foraging in many animals, which hence face the problem of detecting and discriminating these cues in fluctuating noise levels from natural or anthropogenic sources. Such auditory dynamics are perhaps most extreme for echolocating bats that navigate and hunt prey on the wing in darkness by listening for weak echo returns from their powerful calls in complex, self-generated umwelts.1,2 Due to high absorption of ultrasound in air and fast flight speeds, bats operate with short prey detection ranges and dynamic sensory volumes,3 leading us to hypothesize that bats employ superfast vocal-motor adjustments to rapidly changing sensory scenes. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the onset and offset times and magnitude of the Lombard response in free-flying echolocating greater mouse-eared bats exposed to onsets of intense constant or duty-cycled masking noise during a landing task. We found that the bats invoked a bandwidth-dependent Lombard response of 0.1-0.2 dB per dB increase in noise, with very short delay and relapse times of 20ms in response to onsets and termination of duty-cycled noise. In concert with the absence call time-locking to noise-free periods, these results show that free-flying bats exhibit a superfast, but hard-wired, vocal-motor response to increased noise levels. We posit that this reflex is mediated by simple closed-loop audio-motor feedback circuits that operate independently of wingbeat and respiration cycles to allow for rapid adjustments to the highly dynamic auditory scenes encountered by these small predators.

All-you-can-eat buffet: A spider-specialized bat species (Myotis emarginatus) turns into a pest fly eater around cattle.

Determining the dietary spectrum of European insectivorous bats over time is the cornerstone of their conservation, as it will aid our understanding of foraging behavior plasticity in response to plummeting insect populations. Despite the global decline in insects, a restricted number of arthropod pest species thrive. Yet past research has overlooked the potential of European bats to suppress pests harmful to woodlands or livestock, in spite of their economic relevance. Here we investigated the diet composition, its breeding season variations and pest consumption of an insectivorous bat species (Myotis emarginatus), at the northern edge of its range (Wallonia, Belgium). We also explored the prey ecology to gain insight into the hunting strategies and foraging habitats of this bat species. We used DNA metabarcoding to amplify two COI markers within 195 bat droppings collected in June, July and August, thereby identifying 512 prey taxa predominated by Diptera, Araneae and Lepidoptera. Overall, in 97% of the samples we detected at least one of the 58 potential pest taxa, 41 of which targeting trees. The June samples were marked by a diet rich in orb-weaver spiders, in accordance with the archetypal diet of M. emarginatus bats. However, during the highly energy demanding July-August parturition and lactation period, roughly 55% of the dropping samples contained two cattle fly pests (Stomoxys calcitrans and Musca domestica). Moreover, among the 88 Diptera species preyed upon by M. emarginatus in July and August, these flies accounted for around 50% of the taxa occurrences. This plasticity-the switch from a spider-rich to a fly-rich diet-seems providential considering the dramatic ongoing drop in insect populations but this involves ensuring bat-friendly cattle farming. Our results revealed that bats widely consume pest entomofauna, thereby highlighting their potential role as allies of forest managers and farmers.

Enhanced DNA Damage Response in a Clade of Long-Lived Bats Resolved Using Chromosome-Length Genome Assemblies

Lifespan is one of the most variable traits across the entire tree of life, and especially in mammals. Differences in lifespans between closely-related species provides a promising avenue for discovering novel pro-longevity pathways using evolutionary techniques. Previous studies focused on the evolution of longevity-associated traits, such as DNA damage response, have been hampered by a combination of low-quality genomes, low-phylogenetic coverage, or long evolutionary times, all of which can negatively affect their power to detect genes associated with longevity. In order to comprehensively study the evolution of aging and aging-associated traits in bats, we generated chromosome-level reference genomes and primary cell line libraries from a 10-million-year-old clade of 9 California Myotis species spanning a 3-fold range of lifespans. Increases and decreases in longevity independent of body size have evolved multiple times in this clade, providing a dynamic range which can be studied through functional genomics. Leveraging both genomes and cell lines, we identify several pathways specifically associated with longevity, in addition to other longevity-associated traits such as DNA repair and immunity; and show that these changes are associated with cellular resistance to various forms of chemically-induced DNA damage. These pathways represent new targets for exploration using primary cell cultures, and contribute to our understanding of how both agonistic and antagonistic pleiotropy play a role in the evolution of longevity. NSF PRFB 2109915 NIH 5R35GM142916-03. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Persist or Perish: Can Bats Threatened with Extinction Persist and Recover from White-nose Syndrome?

Emerging mycoses are an increasing concern in wildlife and human health. Given the historical rarity of fungal pathogens in warm-bodied vertebrates, there is a need to better understand how to manage mycoses and facilitate recovery in affected host populations. We explore challenges to host survival and mechanisms of host recovery in three bat species (Myotis lucifugus, Perimyotis subflavus, and M. septentrionalis) threatened with extinction by the mycosis, white-nose syndrome (WNS) as it continues to spread across North America. We present evidence from the literature that bats surviving WNS are exhibiting mechanisms of avoidance (by selecting microclimates within roosts) and tolerance (by increasing winter fat reserves), which may help avoid costs of immunopathology incurred by a maladaptive host resistance response. We discuss management actions for facilitating species recovery that take into consideration disease pressures (e.g., environmental reservoirs) and mechanisms underlying persistence, and suggest strategies that alleviate costs of immunopathology and target mechanisms of avoidance (protect or create refugia) and tolerance (increase body condition). We also propose strategies that target population and species-level recovery, including increasing reproductive success and reducing other stressors (e.g., wind turbine mortality). The rarity of fungal pathogens paired with the increasing frequency of emerging mycoses in warm-bodied vertebrate systems, including humans, requires a need to challenge common conventions about how diseases operate, how hosts respond, and how these systems could be managed to increase probability of recovery in host populations.

Blood Serum Amino Acid Pool of European Migratory Chiroptera Vespertilio murinus Linnaeus, 1758 and Pipistrellus nathusii Keyserling et Blasius, 1839 of the Ural Fauna.

The pool of free amino acids (AAs) in the blood serum was studied in two European migratory bat species, Vespertilio murinus and Pipistrellus nathusii, of the Urals. Bats from this year's bloods were examined, and significant differences were observed in main metabolic groups of free AAs, including glycogenic (GGAAs), nonessential (NEAAs), essential (EAAs), and sulfur-containing (SCAAs) AAs (p < 0.05). Based on the percent content of the metabolic groups in the total AA pool, GGAAs (79.7%) and EAAs (49.4%) were found to predominate in P. nathusii, and GGAAs (74.9%) and NEAAs (58.4%), in V. murinus. No difference in AAA and BCAA contents was observed between V. murinus and P. nathusii (p > 0.05). The migratory species were shown to significantly differ in the metabolic groups of serum AAs from the resident species Myotis dasycneme (p < 0.05).

Biomonitoring of benzophenones in guano samples of wild bats in Poland.

Benzophenones (BPs) are substances used in the production of sunscreens, cosmetics, and personal care products. However, there is a lack of knowledge of BPs in wild animals. Therefore, the study aimed to assess the concentration of selected BPs commonly used in the cosmetic industry in guano samples collected from 4 colonies of greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis). Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used to determine guano concentrations of benzophenone 1 (BP-1), benzophenone 2 (BP-2), benzophenone 3 (BP-3) and benzophenone 8 (BP-8). BP-1 levels above the method quantification limit (MQL) were noted in 97.5% of samples and fluctuated from <0.1 ng/g to 259 ng/g (mean 41.50 ng/g, median 34.8). The second most common was BP-3, which fluctuated from <0.1 ng/g to 19 ng/g (mean 6.67 ng/g, median 5.05), and its levels higher than MQL were observed in 40% of samples. BP-2 and BP-8 concentrations did not exceed the method detection limit (0.04 ng/g) in any analyzed sample. There were visible differences in the BP-1 and BP-3 levels among the studied bat colonies. Mean BP-1 concentration fluctuated from 11.23±13.13 ng/g to 76.71±65.51 ng/g and differed significantly between the colonies. Mean BP-3 concentration fluctuated from 5.03±6.03 ng/g to 9.18±7.65 mg/g, but it did not differ significantly between the colonies. The results show that guano is a suitable matrix for the assessment of wildlife exposure to BPs. This could be particularly advantageous in protected species, where not disturbing and stressing the animals are crucial.

Unraveling the Myotis morass: ultraconserved-element analysis reveals introgression, cryptic diversity, and taxonomic trouble

Abstract Using sequences from 2,615 ultraconserved element (UCE) loci and multiple methodologies we inferred phylogenies for the largest genetic data set of New World bats in the genus Myotis to date. The resulting phylogenetic trees were populated with short branch lengths and widespread conflict, hallmarks consistent with rapid adaptive radiations. The degree of conflict observed in Myotis has likely contributed to difficulties disentangling deeper evolutionary relationships. Unlike earlier phylogenies based on 1 to 2 gene sequences, this UCE data set places M. brandtii outside the New World clades. Introgression testing of a small subset of our samples revealed evidence of historical but not contemporary gene flow, suggesting that hybridization occurs less frequently in the Neotropics than the Nearctic. We identified several instances of cryptic lineages within described species as well as several instances of potential taxonomic oversplitting. Evidence from Central and South American localities suggests that diversity in those regions is not fully characterized. In light of the accumulated evidence of the evolutionary complexity in Myotis and our survey of the taxonomic implications from our phylogenies, it is apparent that the definition of species and regime of species delimitation need to be reevaluated for Myotis. This will require substantial collaboration and sample sharing between geneticists and taxonomists to build a system that is both robust and applicable in a genus as diverse as Myotis.