Myotis ater (Peters, 1866)

Voon-Ching Lim, Rosli Ramli, Subha Bhassu & John-James Wilson, 2017, A checklist of the bats of Peninsular Malaysia and progress towards a DNA barcode reference library, PLoS ONE 12 (7), pp. 1-65 : 51-52

Myotis ater [Peters, 1866]

Vespertilio ater Peters, 1866: 18 ; Ternate Island , Moluccas, INDONESIA (Collector unknown; Type unknown) [ 212]

Myotis ater [ 9].

Common English name: Peters’s Myotis

Barcode Index Number: A DNA barcode recorded as M. cf. ater (BM487-04) is from Peninsular Malaysia but is not associated with any BIN due to its short sequence length (<500 bp). Other DNA barcodes recorded as M. ater are associated with the BIN, BOLD:AAA8748.

Remarks: The only BIN (BOLD:AAA8748) that is associated with M. ater also contains DNA barcodes recorded as M. muricola ( Fig 6 ). These taxa were previously considered to be conspecific [ 213] but Francis and Hill [ 214] recognised two species occuring sympatrically in Malaysia, and commented that specimens from Peninsular Malaysia recorded as M. ater are larger than M. ater from elsewhere. As M. muricola is putatively a species complex (refer to remarks on M. muricola ), further studies of M. ater and M. muricola are required to resolve the relationship between these taxa.

IUCN status: Least Concern

Recorded at: Pahang: Krau Wildlife Reserve [ 11], Cameron Highland [ 60]; Perak: Bukit Jerneh Cave and Tumang Lembing Cave [ 30]; Kedah: Ulu Muda Forest Reserve [ 57].

M. ater has been reported roosting in caves, either solitarily or in small colonies and recorded foraging in open areas such as gaps created by fallen trees, midstorey openings and forest edge [ 11, 14].

Figures

Fig 6. Neighbour-joining tree showing all available DNA barcodes for species in family Vespertilionidae reported from Peninsular Malaysia. The percentage of pseudoreplicate trees (±70%) in which the DNA barcodes clustered together in the bootstrap test (500 pseudoreplicates) are shown above the branches. Abbreviation as follows: PM = Peninsular Malaysia,VN = Vietnam, BN = Borneo (including Sabah & Sarawak of East Malaysia, Brunei and Kalimantan Indonesia), TH = Thailand, LA = Laos, SM = Sumatera Indonesia, JV = Java Indonesia, CH = China, CM = Cambodia. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0179555.g006