Phylogeny of plecotine bats: Reevaluation of morphological and chromosomal data

Recent systematic studies of the tribe Plecotini have generated two alternative phylogenetic hierarchies: (Barbastella (Corynorhinus (Plecotus (Idionycteris Euderma)))); and (Euderma [including Idionycteris] (Barbastella (Plecotus Corynorhinus))). To test these hypotheses we examined 44-45 morphological and 11 karyological characters of 10 plecotine species, including Otonycteris hemprichii. Character states for the hypothetical ancestor were inferred by evaluation of selected outgroup taxa: Rhogeessa tumida, Nycticeius humeralis, Eptesicus fuscus, Myotis lucifugus, M. ciliolabrum, and Miniopterus schreibersi. The most parsimonious trees, identical in topology but different in character-state optimization, were congruent with the systematic hierarchy of Plecotini suggested by the first hypothesis. Otonycteris branched off before Corynorhinus. These results strongly support separation of Corynorhinus as an independent genus and limitation of Plecotus to Palaearctic species. The two highly derived taxa, Idionycteris phyllotis and Euderma maculatum, seem to be sufficiently different from each other to be regarded as generically distinct. It is proposed that the tribe Plecotini originated in the eastern hemisphere.