MSc

The taxonomic status of the genus Cynopterus is subject of debate in the scientific world due to the cryptic nature, overlapping morphological characters and addition of six new genetically distinct lineages in the Cynopterus in the last decade. The present study was carried out with the objective of resolving the taxonomic ambiguity of the genus Cynopterus in Kerala and to infer the phylogenetic affinity of the genus Cynopterus within order Chiroptera. This is the first study which address the taxonomic status of the genus Cynopterus in Kerala and second one in India.
The bats were studied from eight different locations in three biogeographical regions of Kerala during April 2014 to December 2014. A total of 67 bats were captured from these locations. On each of these bats the 24 morphometric, dental and cranial variables were measured. Apart from that a molecular analysis was also carried out on 31 samples. Phenol-chloroform extraction or the GeniPureTM Mammalian Genomic DNA Purification Kit (GeNeiTM) was employed for DNA extraction and PCR amplification was done for complete cytochrome b gene. The sequences were compared with those registered in NCBI databank. The phylogeny reconstruction and the calculation of genetic distances were done using the IQ-TREE and MEGA 5.2.
The study reiterates the importance of integrative taxonomy using morphological and molecular techniques. Fifty one samples of C. sphinx and 13 samples of C. brachyotis were used for the multivariate morphometric analysis. This proved that the forearm length has been the only distinctive morphological character to distinguish between the C. sphinx and C. brachyotis. However, the other morphometric parameters were found to be overlapping.

Twenty four sequences of C. sphinx and 7 sequences of C. brachyotis were used for molecular analysis. The phylogenetic tree constructed and the pairwise genetic distance has proved that the C. sphinx from Kerala constitutes the ‘true’ C. sphinx, since they are genetically more identical to C. sphinx from its type locality and all C. sphinx studied forms a single species
The phylogenetic analysis indicated that the C. brachyotis from Kerala may be a different species, since it differ genetically from those species from Borneo, the type locality of C. brachyotis. The presence of genetically distinct lineages within C. brachyotis indicates that the species C. brachyotis has diversified independently at multiple instances in different locations during the past. The clustering of C. brachyotis from Kerala with C. sphinx confirms that they are sister taxa. Extensive sampling from throughout the geographical range of the genus Cynopterus should be done to confirm their systematic position and revise their taxonomic status.