Morphometrics and molecular analyses of horseshoe bats (chiroptera: rhinolophidae) in Sabah, Malaysia

• Main Author: Nur Ain Awatif Mohd Kanapiah
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: QL700-739.8 Mammals
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/40535/1/24%20PAGES.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/40535/2/FULLTEXT.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/40535/

The horseshoe bats, genus Rhinolophus species, are insectivorous bats that act as pest suppressors as part of their ecological service. Bats are an excellent ecological indicator as they are sensitive to human-induced changes in climate and habitat quality. However, difficulties in identifying bat species can be a limitation to using bats as a bioindicator. Although, in general Rhinolophus species can be differentiated by using their noseleaf, nevertheless, with untrained eyes, it is difficult to identify some species, especially those with overlapped forearm measurements. Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess the morphological characters of the Rhinolophus species in Sabah, to reconstruct its phylogeny relationship and genetic variation within Rhinolophus species. A total of 31 individuals of the Rhinolophus species, comprising seven species, namely R. acuminatus, R. affinis, R. borneensis, R. creaghi, R. luctus, R. trifoliatus and R. sedulus were analyzed. A total of 32 characters, including external measurements, skull and dental characteristics were analyzed using multivariate analysis, specifically the discriminant function analysis (DFA). Meanwhile, a total of 2678 Kb of concatenated gene (844bp cytochrome b gene, 1018bp control region gene D-Loop, and 816bp nuclear gene RAG2) were analyzed. Findings showed that the fourth digit metacarpal length (D4MCL), the interorbital width (IOW), and the third digit first phalanx length (D3P1L), contributed the highest loading variations for the identification among Rhinolophus species. Phylogenetic inference using both Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference showed that Rhinolophus species were separated into two clades, namely Clade A (Euryotis- group, Megaphyllus -group and Pusillus -group) and Clade B (Trifoliatus - group) with high support value (100% bootstrap value, 1.00 posterior probability). In addition, to the facial features, the fourth digit metacarpal length (D4MCL) is a reliable character for accurate identification among Rhinolophus species, especially those that have overlapping measurement. Overall, the reliability and relevance of the morphology analysis in this study were demonstrated by its congruence with the phylogeny of Rhinolophus species. Thus, Rhinolophus species’ morphological and genetic data can be utilized as a baseline for monitoring their conservation status to Sabah, Malaysian.