A new bat species from southwestern Western Australia, previously assigned to Gould’s Long-eared Bat Nyctophilus gouldi Tomes, 1858

Abstract

A distributional isolate in southwestern Western Australia previously assigned to Gould’s Long-eared Bat Nyctophilus gouldi Tomes, 1858 is demonstrated to be a distinct and previously unnamed cryptic species, based on a lack of monophyly with eastern populations and substantial DNA sequence divergence (5.0 %) at the mitochondrial gene COI. Morphologically both species are alike and overlap in all measured characters but differ in braincase shape. The new species has one of the most restricted geographic ranges of any Australian Vespertilionidae and aspects of its ecology make it vulnerable to human impacts.

Keywords

• cryptic species
• new species
• nyctophilus arnhemensis
• nyctophilus bifax
• nyctophilus daedalus
• nyctophilus geoffroyi