New Discoveries, Revised Knowledge

It is inevitable that new publications will supersede prevailing knowledge to revise our knowledge of bat diversity and biology. This webpage reports pertinent discoveries, especially to highlight new biogeographical and taxonomic implications arising since mid-2010 when Bats of Southern and Central Africa went to press.

Discovery of four species of Horseshoe Bats new to science reveals Rhinolophus hildebrandtii to be a complex of five species

Taylor, P.J. S. Stoffberg, A. Monadjem, M. C. Schoeman, J. Bayliss, F.P.D. Cotterill 2012. Four new bat species (Rhinolophus hildebrandtii complex) reflect Plio-Pleistocene divergence of dwarfs and giants across an Afromontane Archipelago. PLoS ONE 7(9): e41744. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0041744 PDF Press Releases Conservation

Cohen's Horseshoe Bat, Rhinolophus cohenae Mozambican Horseshoe Bat, Rhinolophus mossambicus Smithers’s Horseshoe Bat, Rhinolophus smithersi

Photo: Patty Ruback Photo: Ara Monadjem Photo: Corrie Schoeman

The Mount Mabu Horseshoe Bat, Rhinolophus mabuensis, is known only from the forested mountains of northern Mozambique

where the Afromontane forests of Mt Inago (centre, right) are highly threatened. The specimens of R. mabuensis were collected

during biodiversity inventories led by Dr Julian Bayliss (below left) Photos: Julian Bayliss

At Least Four Species represent the Rhinolophus clivosus complex in southern Africa

Rhinolophus clivosus is no longer recognized as occurring in southern nor central Africa. This revision is justified by the morphological and phylogeographical findings reported by Stoffberg et al (2012). They have partially resolved the situation for southern and central Africa, where at least four allopatric species can now be recognized (see Map, below at left):

Rhinolophus augur K. Anderson 1904 Type Locality - Kuruman, Northern Cape, South Africa

Rhinolophus geoffroyi A. Smith 1829 Type Locality - Cape Town, South Africa

Rhinolophus zambesiensis K. Anderson 1904 Type Locality - Chitipa (=Fort Hill), Malawi

Rhinolophus zuluensis K. Anderson 1904 Type Locality - Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

It will still take require considerable work to resolve taxon ranges and identities in the R. clivosus complex as a whole across the entire continent - detailing morphological and phylogeographical variation. This must include populations representing the R. clivosus complex in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, which are here tentatively assigned to R. zambesiensis subject to further revision.

Toward a Revision of southern African Rhinolophus clivosus

by Stoffberg, S., M. C. Schoeman and C. A. Matthee

Research Article published in PLoS ONE 27 Feb 2012

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031946

Abstract

The analysis of molecular data within a historical biogeographical framework, coupled with ecological characteristics can provide insight into the processes driving diversification. Here we assess the genetic and ecological diversity within a widespread horseshoe bat Rhinolophus clivosus sensu lato with specific emphasis on the southern African representatives which, although not currently recognized, were previously described as a separate species R. geoffroyi comprising four subspecies. Sequence divergence estimates of the mtDNA control region show that the southern African representatives of R. clivosus s.l. are as distinct from samples further north in Africa than they are from R. ferrumequinum, the sister-species to R. clivosus. Within South Africa, five genetically supported geographic groups exist and these groups are corroborated by echolocation and wing morphology data. The groups loosely correspond to the distributions of the previously defined subspecies and Maxent modelling shows a strong correlation between the detected groups and ecoregions. Based on molecular clock calibrations, it is evident that climatic cycling and related vegetation changes during the Quaternary may have facilitated diversification both genetically and ecologically.

see the original open-access paper for details, including legends of the figures at left.