Historical DNA of rare yellow-eared bats Vampyressa Thomas, 1900 (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) clarifies phylogeny and species boundaries within the genus

Patterns of rarity, endemism, and vulnerability are known for four species of yellow-eared bats of the genus Vampyressa: V. melissa, V. voragine, V. elisabethae, and V. sinchi, the last two described based on skull and external morphology. We extracted DNA from the holotypes of V. elisabethae and V. sinchi using strict ancient DNA protocols and sequenced the complete cytochrome-b gene of the mtDNA to investigate the phylogenetic relationships within the genus and employed species-delimitation tests to evaluate the validity of all the currently named species of Vampyressa. The resulting tree topology and our species-delimitation analyses corroborate the validity of V. elisabethae and V. voragine, but places V. sinchi in V. melissa. Based on these results and phenotypic variation, we recognize five valid species in Vampyressa and treat sinchi as a subspecies of a polytypic V. melissa; for which we provide a rediagnosis. Our results show that V. elisabethae is as highly divergent genetically as it is morphologically, and suggest that V. thyone, one of the two species of Vampyressa known to have wide distributions, is a species complex requiring further investigation.

目前已知狐面蝠属（Vampyressa）4种黄耳蝙蝠的稀有性、特有性及受胁格局：包括梅丽莎狐面蝠（V. melissa）、沃拉辛狐面蝠（V. voragine）、伊丽莎白狐面蝠（V. elisabethae）与辛奇狐面蝠（V. sinchi），其中后两个物种基于头骨及外部形态特征被命名确立。本研究采用严格的古DNA实验流程，从伊丽莎白狐面蝠与辛奇狐面蝠的正模标本中提取DNA，对线粒体DNA（mtDNA）的完整细胞色素b基因进行测序，以解析狐面蝠属内的系统发育关系；同时通过物种界定检验，评估该属当前所有已命名物种的有效性。所得系统发育树的拓扑结构与物种界定分析结果证实，伊丽莎白狐面蝠与沃拉辛狐面蝠为有效物种，但辛奇狐面蝠应归入梅丽莎狐面蝠。结合上述结果与表型变异特征，本研究认定狐面蝠属共有5个有效物种，并将辛奇狐面蝠处理为多型种梅丽莎狐面蝠的亚种，同时对该多型种提供重新诊断描述。本研究结果显示，伊丽莎白狐面蝠的遗传分化程度与形态分化程度相当；同时表明，已知分布范围较广的两种狐面蝠之一的V. thyone实为物种复合群，需开展进一步研究。