First national assessment of wildlife mortality in Ecuador: An effort from citizens and academia to collect roadkill data at country scale

Ecuador has both high richness and high endemism, which are increasingly threatened by anthropic pressures, including roads. Research evaluating the effects of roads remains scarce, making it difficult to develop mitigation plans. Here, we present the first national assessment of wildlife mortality on roads that allow us to (1) estimate roadkill rates per species, (2) identify affected species and areas, and (3) reveal knowledge gaps. We bring together data from systematic surveys and citizen science efforts to present a dataset with 5010 wildlife roadkill records from 392 species, and we also provide 333 standardized corrected roadkill rates calculated on 242 species. Systematic surveys were reported by ten studies from five Ecuadorian provinces, revealing 242 species with corrected roadkill rates ranging from 0.03 to 171.72 ind./km/year. The highest rates were for the yellow warbler Setophaga petechia in Galapagos (171.72 ind./km/year), the cane toad Rhinella marina in Manabi (110.70 ind./km/year), and the Galapagos lava lizard Microlophus albemarlensis (47.17 ind./km/year). Citizen science and other nonsystematic monitoring provided 1705 roadkill records representing all 24 provinces in Ecuador and 262 identified species. The common opossum Didelphis marsupialis, the Andean white-eared opossum Didelphis pernigra, and the yellow warbler Setophaga petechia were more commonly reported (250, 104, and 81 individuals, respectively). Across all sources, we found 15 species listed as "Threatened" and six as "Data Deficient" by the IUCN. We recommend stronger research efforts in areas where the mortality of endemic or threatened species could be critical for populations, such as in Galapagos. This first country-wide assessment of wildlife mortality on Ecuadorian roads represents contributions from academia, members of the public, and government, underlining the value of wider engagement and collaboration. We hope these findings and the compiled dataset will guide sensible driving and sustainable planning of infrastructure in Ecuador and, ultimately, contribute to reduce wildlife mortality on roads.

Argentinean Myotis (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae), including the description of a new species from the Yungas

Myotis is the most speciose genus of mammals in the world and recent taxonomic revisions have revealed an impressive diversity of species in South America. Even so, the phenotypic conservatism of some taxa makes taxonomic delimitation difficult. We perform a taxonomic review of Myotis from Argentina based on qualitative and quantitative morphological characters. Our results confirm the occurrence of 12 species (M. albescens, M. chiloensis, M. dinellii, M. izecksohni, M. keaysi, M. lavali, M. levis, M. nigricans, M. oxyotus, M. riparius, M. ruber, and M. cf. simus) and revealed an additional new species for the Yungas Forest. The new species is small to medium (forearm length ~ 35 mm) and can be distinguished from its congeners by a set of characters that includes forearm length, cranial measurements, discrete craniodental characters, and fur color. This review does not exhaust the need for new systematic studies with Argentinean Myotis, considering the possibility of occurrence of new species and the great morphological variation found for some complex taxa.

High genetic connectivity among large populations of Pteronotus gymnonotus in bat caves in Brazil and its implications for conservation

Bat caves in the Neotropical region harbor exceptional bat populations (> 100,000 individuals). These populations play a wider role in ecological interactions, are vulnerable due to their restriction to caves, and have a disproportionate conservation value. Current knowledge of bat caves in Brazil is still small. However, systematic monitoring of some bat caves in northeastern Brazil shows that they experience strong population fluctuations over short periods of time, suggesting large-scale movements between roosts and a much broader use of the landscape than previously considered. Spatio-temporal reproductive connectivity between distant populations would change our understanding of the use of roosts among bat species in Brazil, and important gaps in knowledge of long-distance bat movements in the country would be filled. Here, we used ddRADseq data to analyze the genetic structure of Pteronotus gymnonotus across nine bat caves over 700 km. Our results indicate the lack of a clear geographic structure with gene flow among all the caves analyzed, suggesting that P. gymnonotus uses a network of bat caves geographically segregated hundreds of kilometers apart. Facing strong anthropogenic impacts and an underrepresentation of caves in conservation action plans worldwide, the genetic connectivity demonstrated here confirms that bat caves are priority sites for bat and speleological conservation in Brazil and elsewhere. Moreover, our results demonstrate a warning call: the applied aspects of the environmental licensing process of the mining sector and its impact must be reviewed, not only in Brazil, but wherever this licensing process affects caves having exceptional bat populations.

Catalogue of primary types of Neotropical Myotis (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)

Myotis comprises a diverse group of vespertilionid bats with worldwide distribution. Neotropical Myotis have an accentuated phenotypic conservatism, which makes species delimitation and identification difficult, hindering our understanding of the diversity, distribution, and phylogenetic relationships of taxa. To encourage new systematic reviews of the genus, a catalogue of the primary types and names is presented, current and in synonymy, for Neotropical Myotis. Currently 33 valid species (and three subspecies) are recognized, and their primary types are deposited in 12 scientific collections in the USA (30 types), Brazil (two types), England (two types), and France (one type). The names of 29 Neotropical Myotis species currently in synonymy were found. However, it is possible that some synonyms represent independent evolutionary lineages, considering recent results provided by taxonomic revisions.