A review of the bacular morphology of some Indian bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera)

Abstract

Bacular studies play a significant role in the case of bats and other mammals since it is considered an important taxon-specific character, thus helping in species discrimination. Structure of the baculum (os penis) also aids in examining and understanding cryptic diversity in bats. The baculum has been used in taxonomic studies of bats but such studies for Indian bats are few and far between. It was felt necessary to put together a comprehensive document depicting the bacular morphology of bats in India so as to be helpful for future bat studies. The penises of the bats were excised, treated with KOH, and then dyed with alizarin red to extract the bacula. The extracted bacula were measured using an oculometer, photographed, and preserved in glycerol. Of the total of 47 species of bats (belonging to nine families) collected and studied during the past decade, we present the bacular morphology of 44 species from peninsular India, Andaman Islands, and Jammu and Kashmir. Bacular morphology of eight taxa, namely, Eonycteris spelaea, Rhinolophus pusillus, R. lepidus monticola, R. cognatus, Hipposideros cf. grandis, Myotis peytoni, M. horsfieldii dryas, and M. longipes are presented here for the first time from India.

Mammals of northeastern India: an updated checklist

“…Red Deer was earlier recorded from Sikkim which is now locally extinct there but present in other regions of India; while other species are considered to be extinct from India. Species such as Pteropus giganteus, Barbastella leucomelas, Plecotus auratus, and Miniopterus schreibersii have been substituted with Pteropus medius, Barbastella J TT darjelingensis, Plecotus homochrous, and Miniopterus magnater and following recent taxonomic revisions (Spitzenberger et al 2006;Benda et al 2008;Srinivasulu et al 2020…”

“…The book "Mammals of northeastern India" by Choudhury (2013) is the most valuable for the taxonomic and geographic distribution of the mammalian species in the region. Most recent records like distribution list of the bat fauna of Assam by Boro et al (2018), distribution of Mammals in the Indian Himalayan region by Kamalakannan et al (2018), mammals in Arunachal Pradesh by Kumar (2018), bat fauna of Meghalaya by Saikia et al (2018), mammalian fauna in Meghalaya by Lyngdoh et al (2019), review of the bacular morphology of some Indian bats by Srinivasulu et al (2020), and some other recent discovery of mammals in the region shows the importance to update the mammalian records of the region. In addition, taxonomic revisions especially of the lower mammalian orders are one of the reasons for updating of the checklist.…”