A review of bats of the genus <i>Pseudoromicia</i> (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) with the description of a new species

The Cameroon Volcanic Line, which divides the Congo Basin fauna from the West African fauna, is a known area of high endemism for various taxa, but the region’s bat fauna has received little attention. We review variation in morphological and molecular (mitochondrial Cytochrome <i>b</i>) characters in the Tropical African vespertilionid bat genus <i>Pseudoromicia</i>. Assessment of this variation indicates the existence of a new species of <i>Pseudoromicia</i>, from the Mbam Minkom Massif in the Centre Region of Cameroon. The new species is diagnosable by sequence data and is morphologically similar to its putative sister taxon, <i>P. kityoi</i>, from Uganda. Although we suggest that it be assigned to the IUCN category of Data Deficient, there should be some concern as to the conservation status of this species: the Mbam Minkom Massif ecosystem is threatened due to lack of legal conservation frameworks and exposure to increasing human pressure. The new species is in a clade with <i>P. roseveari</i> and <i>P. kityoi</i>. These three species may be relicts of a single widespread species originating in the West African “white-winged” group of <i>Pseudoromicia</i> that then spread east across the tropical moist broadleaf forest into East Africa, and are now restricted to a few upland rainforest patches in West Africa (<i>P. roseveari</i>), in outliers of the Cameroon Volcanic Line region (<i>Pseudoromicia</i> sp.), and the Lake Victoria area (<i>P. kityoi</i>). The smaller, white-winged species are hypothesized to be ancestral, with one extant putative species (<i>P. rendalli</i>) also extending into East and southern Africa (Van Cakenberghe &amp; Happold, 2013). The larger, dark-winged taxa likely dispersed to East Africa and subsequently back to West Africa (e.g., <i>Pseudoromicia</i> sp., <i>P. roseveari</i>). Our data illustrate the potential importance of the Dahomey Gap and climatic changes in the evolution of this group of species. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:30929BAA-4043-422D-B209-16CAB826043E