Taxonomy and Natural History of the Southeast Asian Fruit-Bat GenusDyacopterus

Complete, accurate, mammalian phylogenies aid conservation planning, but not much

In the face of unprecedented global biodiversity loss, conservation planning must balance between refining and deepening knowledge versus acting on current information to preserve species and communities. Phylogenetic diversity (PD), a biodiversity measure that takes into account the evolutionary relationships between species, is arguably a more meaningful measure of biodiversity than species diversity, but cannot yet be applied to conservation planning for the majority of taxa for which phylogenetic trees have not yet been developed. Here, we investigate how the quality of data on the taxonomy and/or phylogeny of species affects the results of spatial conservation planning in terms of the representation of overall mammalian PD. The results show that the better the quality of the biodiversity data the better they can serve as a basis for conservation planning. However, decisions based on incomplete data are remarkably robust across different levels of degrading quality concerning the description of new species and the availability of phylogenetic information. Thus, given the level of urgency and the need for action, conservation planning can safely make use of the best available systematic data, limited as these data may be.

The phylogenetic relationships of cynopterine fruit bats (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae: Cynopterinae)

The subfamily Cynopterinae comprises ca. 24 species of pteropodid bats (Family Pteropodidae) distributed exclusively in South and Southeast Asia. Although some studies have supported monophyly of the subfamily, molecular analyses have produced contradictory results and there has been little agreement on relationships of cynopterines to other megabat groups. However, no previous studies have included a complete sampling of cynopterine genera. Here we describe a phylogenetic analysis of Cynopterinae based on more than 6000 bp from six different genes sampled in representatives of all 14 recognized genera. Our results support the monophyly of Cynopterinae but refute a close relationship of cynopterines with Nyctimeninae. Within Cynopterinae, our analyses consistently recovered two monophyletic clades, which we recommend be recognized formally as tribes: Cynopterini and Balionycterini. Biogeographic analyses indicate a Sundaland origin of the Cynopterinae and divergence date estimates suggest different timing of diversification of the two major cynopterine clades.