Rhinolophus pusillus, Temminck, 1834

Wu, Yi, Motokawa, Masaharu, Li, Yu-Chun, Harada, Masashi, Chen, Zhong & Lin, Liang-Kong, 2009, Karyology of eight species of bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from Hainan Island, China, International Journal of Biological Sciences 5 (7), pp. 659-666 : 660

The karyotypes of R. pusillus

and R. affinis from Hainan Island were also 2n = 62, FN = 60 ( Fig. 2A, B ), consisting of 30 medium-sized to small acrocentric autosomal pairs, a large subtelocentric X chromosome, and a small acrocentric Y chromosome. A secondary constriction was detected in one pair of medium-sized acrocentric chromosomes in both species. Rhinolophus pusillus and R. affinis are widely distributed in the Indomalayan region and China and each contains nine subspecies [ 26]. The two subspecies from Hainan ( R. pusillus parcus and R. affinis hainanus ) examined in this study showed no karyological differences from previous reports for the following taxa: R. p. szechwanus from the Chinese provinces of Sichuan [ 14] and Guizhou [ 13] (reported as R. cornutus ); R. p. calidus from the Chinese provinces of Anhui [ 6] (as R. cornutus pumilus ) and Guangdong [ 15] (as R. cornutus ); R. p. lakkhanae from Thailand [ 27]; R. a. himalayanus from the Chinese provinces of Guizhou [ 12] and Henan [ 28]; R. a. macrurus from the Chinese provinces of Anhui [ 6] and Guangdong [ 15] (as R. affinis ); and R. a. macrurus from Thailand [ 27].

The reported comparative karyological data for 35 Rhinolophus species in the world [ 6, 15, 27 - 31] suggest that the karyotype 2n = 62, FN = 60 is likely the conserved among the species and subspecies of the genus Rhinolophus and is shared by R. lepidus , R. pusillus , R. affinis , R. macrotis , R. rex , and R. huananus (reported as R. macrotis [ 15]). Karyotype of R. lepidus is also considered a member of this 2n = 62, FN = 60 karyotype without recognized difference in G-banding pattern compared with Mao et al. [ 17]. This 2n = 62, FN = 60 karyotype was thought to be ancestral state of the genus Rhinolophus , but recent karyotype study suggested that 2n=58 karyotype is more closely related to ancestral karyotype of the genus [ 17].

Figures

Figure 2 Conventional karyotypes of R. pusillus (A) and R. affinis (B) from Hainan Island, China. Secondary constrictions are indicated by arrows.