Karyotypic differences in two sibling species of Scotophilus from South Africa (Vespertilionidae, Chiroptera, Mammalia) (original) (raw)

2007, Cytogenetic and Genome Research

covered recently amongst the southern African members of the vespertilionid genus Scotophilus . Formerly, three Scotophilus species were thought to occur in southern Africa, differing in their body sizes: a large species, S. nigrita (forearm FA 1 70 mm), and two smaller species, S. dinganii (FA 51-58 mm) and S. viridis . The occurrence of a fourth species, S. leucogaster , is questionable. According to , S. leucogaster occurs in Namibia and Botswana, but not in South Africa. , however, restricts the southern range of S. leucogaster to Kenya. Scotophilus nux, once regarded as a subspecies of S. nigrita but given full species status by , is restricted to high forest zones in West, Central and East Africa and does not occur in southern Africa . Recordings of echolocation calls of S. dinganii in South Africa revealed that specimens could be divided in two dis-Abstract. Karyotype descriptions are given for Scotophilus dinganii (2n = 36, FNa = 50) and a recently discovered sister-species, Scotophilus sp. nov. (2n = 36, FNa = 52). These two sibling species occur sympatrically and are distinguished by body size, echolocation frequency and cytochrome b sequence. Cytogenetically, both species differ from other Scotophilus species in the subtelocentric morphology of chromosome 2 and a terminal heterochromatic segment on the X chromosome. Further, Scotophilus sp. nov. is characterized by a subtelocentric chromosome 4 not found in any other Scotophilus species. Comparing the Scotophilus karyotype with that of the vespertilionid genus Request reprints from Marianne Volleth