''Dasypterus'' is a genus of or subgenus of
vesper bat
Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat famili ...
. As a genus, it includes species that were formerly in the genus ''
Lasiurus
''Lasiurus'' is a genus of bats in the family Vespertilionidae
Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilio ...
''. Collectively, members of ''Dasypterus'' are referred to as the yellow bats.
Taxonomy
Based on genetic divergence within ''
Lasiurus
''Lasiurus'' is a genus of bats in the family Vespertilionidae
Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilio ...
'', Baird et al. recommended that the hoary bats be recognized as a separate genus, ''
Aeorestes''. They additionally recommended that ''Dasypterus'' should be elevated from a
subgenus to a genus as well.
However, as ''Lasiurus'' was previously
monophyletic, some authors see the creation of two new genera—''Aeorestes'' and ''Dasypterus''—as a solution to something that was not a problem. Teta advocated using ''Aeorestes'' as a subgenus and retaining the usage of ''Dasypterus'' as such.
In a 2017 follow-up to their 2015 study, Baird et al. again expressed that ''Aeorestes'', ''Dasypterus'', and ''Lasiurus'' should be separate genera comprising the
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...
Lasiurini. They stated that the genetic distance of the three genera was much greater than observed between other bat genera, on average. In contrast to the average of 12.0% inter-generic divergence reported from another study on bats, ''Aeorestes'' and ''Dasypterus'' varied 18.79%; ''Aeorestes'' and ''Lasiurus'' varied 19.05%; and ''Dasypterus'' and ''Lasiurus'' varied 19.79%.
Species
The genus consists of the following four species:
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Southern yellow bat
The southern yellow bat (''Dasypterus ega'') is a species of vesper bat that belongs to suborder microchiroptera (microbat) in the family Vespertilionidae. It is native to South, North and Central America, from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas i ...
(''Dasypterus ega'')
*
Cuban yellow bat (''Dasypterus insularis'')
*
Northern yellow bat (''Dasypterus intermedius'')
*
Western yellow bat (''Dasypterus xanthinus'')
References
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q19713822
Bat genera
Lasiurini
Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters