Taxonomic re-evaluation of New World Eptesicus and Histiotus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae), with the description of a new genus

Phylogenetic, morphological and niche differentiation unveil new species limits for the big brown bat ( Eptesicus fuscus )

“…Open Sci. 11: 231384 divergence, the Caribbean and continental E. fuscus clades were still considered the same species [14,35,36,38] (but see [17]). We revisited and expanded the analyses performed by Turmelle et al [38] and Yi & Latch [14] to assess whether phylogenies for mitochondrial and nuclear data would provide evidence for Caribbean monophyly.…”

“…Similar geographically associated clades have been observed in insular birds [ 90 ]. Despite evidence of signals of deep divergence, the Caribbean and continental E. fuscus clades were still considered the same species [ 14 , 35 , 36 , 38 ] (but see [ 17 ]).…”

“…This species appears to be a rare bat on Guadeloupe Island [ 34 ]. A recent review including two specimens seems to confirm its uniqueness [ 35 ] but a contrasting hypothesis was presented by Yi & Latch [ 36 ]. In the absence of additional data to evaluate, we treat E. guadeloupensis as a valid taxon in this paper.…”

“…Given that recent studies showed that this taxon is associated with E. f. hispaniolae , we followed the taxonomic recommendation of Simmons & Cirranello [ 32 ] to treat the Jamaican lineage as a subspecies of E. fuscus . Finally, in a different taxonomic study on the genus Eptesicus , the specific epithet ‘fuscus’ was restricted to mainland North and Central America and the Greater Antilles [ 35 ].…”

Rediscovery of Histiotus alienus Thomas, 1916 a century after its description (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae): distribution extension and redescription

“…The number of species recognized in the genus, however, has varied over the last decades (see Simmons 2005 ; Handley and Gardner 2008 ; Cláudio 2019 ; Rodríguez-Posada et al 2021 ), and three new species were recently described ( Feijó et al 2015 ; Rodríguez-Posada et al 2021 ; Velazco et al 2021 ). The generic status of Histiotus has also been debated over the last decades since the genus is consistently recovered within Eptesicus in molecular phylogenies (= Eptesicus Rafinesque, 1820 + Cnephaeus Kaup, 1829 + Neoeptesicus Cláudio et al, 2023 ; see Cláudio et al 2023 ). Eptesicus ( sensu lato ) occurs in both the New and Old World ( Hoofer and Van Den Bussche 2003 ; Roehrs et al 2010 , 2011 ; Juste et al 2013 ; Yi and Latch 2022 ).…”