article · Journal of Zoological Systematics & Evolutionary Research
An examination of genetic variation across the slit-faced bat family Nycteridae reveals substantial hidden biodiversity in Africa. By sequencing mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from 253 individuals, primarily from museum voucher specimens, researchers identified at least 16 deeply divergent lineages, demonstrating that phylogenetic diversity within the family has been significantly underestimated. Ten of these lineages occur partly or entirely in East Africa, highlighting the region as a diversity hotspot and suggesting that further undescribed species likely exist in less-sampled areas of Central and West Africa. Furthermore, South-East Asian species stem from African ancestry. Genetic patterns also support two previously unrecognised major subclades that may represent distinct subgenera, alongside four traditionally recognised species groups. Observed discordance between mitochondrial and nuclear markers in Nycteris thebaica points to male-biased dispersal, underscoring the necessity for a comprehensive taxonomic revision of the family.
Accurate species classification is essential for understanding African biodiversity, evolutionary history, and wildlife conservation priorities. Identifying previously unrecognised bat lineages reveals that regional mammalian diversity remains undercounted. This work provides a genetic framework to help taxonomists, ecologists, and conservationists re-evaluate species boundaries, historical dispersal patterns, and ecosystem roles across Africa using complementary physical, ecological, and acoustic data.
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The bat family Nycteridae contains only the genus <i>Nycteris</i>, which comprises 13 currently recognized species from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, one species from Madagascar, and two species restricted to Malaysia and Indonesia in South-East Asia. We investigated genetic variation, clade membership, and phylogenetic relationships in Nycteridae with broad sampling across Africa for most clades. We sequenced mitochondrial cytochrome <i>b</i> (<i>cytb</i>) and four independent nuclear introns (2,166 bp) from 253 individuals. Although our samples did not include all recognized species, we recovered at least 16 deeply divergent monophyletic lineages using independent mitochondrial and multilocus nuclear datasets in both gene tree and species tree analyses. Mean pairwise uncorrected genetic distances among species-ranked <i>Nycteris</i> clades (17% for <i>cytb</i> and 4% for concatenated introns) suggest high levels of phylogenetic diversity in Nycteridae. We found a large number of designated clades whose members are distributed wholly or partly in East Africa (10 of 16 clades), indicating that <i>Nycteris</i> diversity has been historically underestimated and raising the possibility that additional unsampled and/or undescribed <i>Nycteris</i> species occur in more poorly sampled Central and West Africa. Well-resolved mitochondrial, concatenated nuclear, and species trees strongly supported African ancestry for SE Asian species. Species tree analyses strongly support two deeply diverged subclades that have not previously been recognized, and these clades may warrant recognition as subgenera. Our analyses also strongly support four traditionally recognized species groups of <i>Nycteris</i>. Mitonuclear discordance regarding geographic population structure in <i>Nycteris thebaica</i> appears to result from male-biased dispersal in this species. Our analyses, almost wholly based on museum voucher specimens, serve to identify species-rank clades that can be tested with independent datasets, such as morphology, vocalizations, distributions, and ectoparasites. Our analyses highlight the need for a comprehensive revision of Nycteridae.
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DOI: 10.1111/jzs.12313
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