Abstract:
The genus Scotophilus contains 21 currently recognized species ranging throughout
Africa and Southeast Asia. Among the 13 species recognized from continental Africa,
systematic relationships remain poorly understood. Taxonomic uncertainty regarding
names, suggestions of polytypic species complexes, and undescribed cryptic diversity
all contribute to the current confusion. To gain insights into the systematics of this
group, we inferred single locus and multi-locus phylogenies and conducted lineage
delimitation analyses using seven unlinked genes for specimens from across Africa.
Recent collections from Kenya allowed us to carry out population-level analyses for
the diverse assemblage of East African Scotophilus. Multi-locus coalescent delimitation
methods indicated strong support for three recently named lineages thought to be
restricted to Kenya and Tanzania; it also uncovered two new distinctive lineages at
present known only from Kenya. Subsequent taxonomic assessments that integrate
these genetic data with phenotypic, distributional, and/or ecological traits are needed
to establish these lineages as valid species. Nevertheless, as many as 15 Scotophilus
species may occur in continental Africa, 10 of these in Kenya alone. Our analysis
highlights the importance of population-level surveys for the detection of cryptic diversity
in understudied regions such as the Afrotropics.
Keywords: Chiroptera, cryptic diversity, East Africa, Kenya, phylogeny, species complex, species tree, taxonomy