Miniopterus manavi

The Manavi long-fingered bat (''Miniopterus manavi'') is a bat in the genus ''Miniopterus'' that occurs in east-central Madagascar. First described in 1906, this species was later included in the mainland African '' M. minor''. A 1995 revision united populations of small ''Miniopterus'' from Madagascar and the Comoros as ''M. manavi'', but molecular and morphological studies in 2008 and 2009 showed that this concept of ''M. manavi'' in fact included five different species. ''M. manavi'' itself was restricted to a few locations in the eastern Central Highlands and populations in the Comoros and northern and western Madagascar were allocated to different species.

''Miniopterus manavi'' is a small, blackish or reddish-brown ''Miniopterus''; its forearm length is . The tragus (a projection in the outer ear) is narrow and ends in an angular tip. The uropatagium (tail membrane) is well-furred and the palate is flat.

Taxonomy

''Miniopterus'', a widespread genus of bats in Africa, southern Eurasia, and Australia, was first recorded from Madagascar by George Edward Dobson, who mentioned the larger '' Miniopterus schreibersii'' and the smaller ''M. scotinus'' (currently '' M. natalensis'') in his 1878 catalog of the bats in the British Museum. In 1906, Oldfield Thomas named the larger species '' M. majori'' and the smaller ''M. manavi''. He regarded ''M. manavi'' as close to the mainland African '' M. minor'', and in 1971, R.W. Hayman and J.E. Hill placed it as a subspecies of that species. In their 1995 '' Faune de Madagascar'' review of Malagasy bats, however, Randolph Peterson and colleagues again separated ''M. manavi'' as a species, with ''M. manavi griveaudi'' (currently '' Miniopterus griveaudi'') from Grande Comore as a subspecies. Peterson, who died before the review was completed, had originally divided ''M. manavi'' into several species occurring in different areas, but his collaborators decided conservatively to keep ''M. manavi'' as a single species, recommending reassessment of the status of those forms as new material would become available.

In the 2000s, molecular studies helped clarify the systematics of ''Miniopterus''. In 2007, Javier Juste and colleagues, using sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome ''b'' gene, found that bats from Madagascar (''M. manavi''), Grande Comore (''M. manavi griveaudi'') and São Tomé (''M. minor newtoni''; currently '' Miniopterus newtoni'') did not cluster together to the exclusion of other African ''Miniopterus''; however, their samples of "''M. manavi''" were in fact misidentified '' M. majori''. The next year, Nicole Weyeneth and colleagues used cytochrome ''b'' and mitochondrial D-loop sequences to assess the relationships of Comoran ''Miniopterus''. They found two unrelated clades within Malagasy and Comoran samples of "''Miniopterus manavi''", neither of which was closely related to ''M. newtoni'' or to Tanzanian samples of ''M. minor''.

During 2009, Steven Goodman and colleagues published two papers that found a total of five genetically and morphologically distinct species within ''Miniopterus manavi'' as defined by Peterson and colleagues (1995), up to four of which can be found in a single locality. In order to determine the true identity of ''M. manavi'', Goodman and Claude Maminirina obtained bats near the type locality of ''M. manavi'' (the site where the original material was collected, from which the species was described) for inclusion in the analysis; they also sequenced one of Thomas's original specimens.Goodman et al., 2009a, p. 346 Among the five species they identified, ''M. griveaudi'' occurs on Grande Comore and Anjouan and in northern and western Madagascar; '' M. aelleni'' occurs on Anjouan and in northern and western Madagascar; '' M. brachytragos'' is found in northern Madagascar only; '' M. mahafaliensis'' is confined to the southwestern part of the island; and ''M. manavi'' itself is known only from the eastern edge of the Central Highlands. These five species are not each other's closest relatives according to analyses of cytochrome ''b'' sequences and their similarities reflect convergent evolution. Cytochrome ''b'' suggested that the closest relative of ''M. manavi'' is the slightly larger '' M. petersoni'' from southeastern Madagascar. Two specimens of ''M. manavi'' differed by 1.3% in their cytochrome ''b'' sequences and by 2.5% from ''M. petersoni''.

Description

''Miniopterus manavi'' is a diminutive speciesGoodman et al., 2009b, p. 21 with fur of medium length.Thomas, 1906, p. 176 The upperparts are blackish or reddish brown. Other small Malagasy ''Miniopterus'' are lighter. The ears mostly lack hair and end in a rounded tip. The tragus (a projection on the inner side of the outer ear) is thin for most of its length, ends in an angular tip, and has a flange at the medial side (towards the midline of the animal). The tragus is differently shaped in other species. The wings and uropatagium (tail membrane) are blackish and are attached to the upper leg at the same level, above the ankle.Goodman et al., 2009a, p. 349 The uropatagium is densely haired above and more sparsely below, as in ''M. mahafaliensis'' and ''M. brachytragos''; ''M. griveaudi'' and ''M. aelleni'' have more nearly naked uropatagia.Goodman et al., 2009b, p. 22

In the single specimen of true ''M. manavi'' that Goodman and colleagues could measure, total length is , tail length is , hindfoot length is , tragus length is , ear length is , and body mass is . The length of the forearm is known from four specimens; it ranges from , averaging .

In the skull, the rostrum (front part) is rounded. The central groove in the nasal depression is relatively narrow. The frontal bones are inflated and bear a prominent sagittal crest. Further back on the braincase, the lambdoid crest is poorly developed.Goodman et al., 2009a, p. 350 The middle part of the palate is flat, not concave as in ''M. brachytragos'', ''M. griveaudi'', and ''M. mahafaliensis''. At the palate's back margin is a short, thick posterior palatal spine.

Distribution and ecology

The currently known distribution of ''M. manavi'' extends around the eastern margin of the Central Highlands, from the vicinity of Ambositra in the north to Vinanitelo in the south, at above sea level. The 2008 IUCN Red List assesses the species as "Least Concern", citing its wide distribution, though it is sometimes hunted for food. However, the account predates the recognition of ''M. aelleni'', ''M. brachytragos'', ''M. griveaudi'', and ''M. mahafaliensis'' as separate species. Although some ecological data about ''M. manavi'' have been published, these need to be reevaluated with the recognition of numerous additional species within ''M. manavi''.Goodman et al., 2009b, p. 31 Species of ''Miniopterus'' generally feed on insects, breed seasonally, and roost in large colonies in caves. The myobiid mite '' Calcarmyobia comoresensis'' has been recorded on ''M. manavi''.Uchikawa, 1985, p. 45

References

Literature cited

*Andriafidison, D., Cardiff, S.G., Goodman, S.M., Hutson, A.M., Jenkins, R.K.B., Kofoky, A.F., Racey, P.A., Ranivo, J., Ratrimomanarivo, F.H. and Razafimanahaka, H.J. 2008. . In IUCN. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.2.
www.iucnredlist.org
. Downloaded on July 13, 2010.
*Dobson, G.E. 1878
Catalogue of the Chiroptera in the collections of the British Museum
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*Goodman, S.M., Maminirina, C.P., Weyeneth, N., Bradman, H.M., Christidis, L., Ruedi, M. and Appleton, B. 2009a
The use of molecular and morphological characters to resolve the taxonomic identity of cryptic species: the case of ''Miniopterus manavi'' (Chiroptera: Miniopteridae)
(subscription required). ''Zoologica Scripta'' 38:339–363.
*Goodman, S.M., Maminirina, C.P., Bradman, H.M., Christidis, L. and Appleton, B. 2009b
The use of molecular phylogenetic and morphological tools to identify cryptic and paraphyletic species: Examples from the diminutive long-fingered bats (Chiroptera: Miniopteridae: ''Miniopterus'') on Madagascar
''American Museum Novitates'' 3669:1–34.
*Hill, J.E. 1993. Long-fingered bats of the genus ''Miniopterus'' (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from Madagascar. ''Mammalia'' 57(3):401–405.
*Juste, J., Ferrández, A., Fa, J.E., Masefield, W. and Ibáñez, C. 2007. Taxonomy of little bentwinged bats (''Miniopterus'', Miniopteridae) from the African islands of São Tomé, Grand Comoro and Madagascar, based on mtDNA. ''Acta Chiropterologica'' 9:27–37.
*Nowak, R.M. 1994. ''Walker's Bats of the Old World''. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 287 pp.
*Thomas, O. 1906
New African mammals of the genera ''Cercopithecus'', ''Scotophilus'', ''Miniopterus'', ''Crocidura'', ''Georychus'', and ''Heliophobius''
''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'' (7)17:173–179.
*Uchikawa, K. 1985
''Calcarmyobia'' from the Ethiopian region (Acarina, Myobiidae)
''Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Zoology Series'' 48(1):45–55.
*Weyeneth, N., Goodman, S.M., Stanley, W.T. and Ruedi, M. 2008
The biogeography of ''Miniopterus'' bats (Chiroptera: Miniopteridae) from the Comoro Archipelago inferred from mitochondrial DNA
(subscription required). ''Molecular Ecology'' 17:5205–5219.

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Miniopteridae
Bats of Africa
Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Mammals described in 1906