Falsistrellus

Falsistrellus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Chiroptera
Family:	Vespertilionidae
Tribe:	Vespertilionini
Genus:	Falsistrellus Troughton, 1943 [1]
Type species
Vespertilio tasmaniensis Gould, 1858

Falsistrellus is a genus of vespertilionid family of bats, small predatory flying mammals. They are known from Australia. The poorly researched species have been variously placed by authors, and revised again by studies of their distinct characteristics, consequently the falsistrelles may also be referred to as pipistrelles or false pipstrelles.

Taxonomy

Common names for the species include falsistrelle and false pipistrelle. ^[2] The description of the genus was published in 1943 by Ellis Le Geyt Troughton. ^{[1] [3]} Some authorities maintain the earlier treatment of taxa as genus Pipistrellus , while other maintain this as a separate group. ^[3] One revision of the genus Pipistrellus resurrected Troughton's genus to accommodate the south-eastern Australian Falsistrellus tasmaniensis and elevated the south-western Australian population as a new species, Falsistrellus mackenziei . ^[4] The type species of the genus is Vespertilio tasmaniensis, described by John Gould in 1858, thus the combinations as Pipistrellus tasmaniensis and F. tasmaniensis. ^[3]

The species outside of Australia have been supposed to be conspecific, and those endemic to the continent separated by a variety of taxonomic treatments. The limited morphological or morphometric analyses lent support to some arrangements, yet remained inconclusive in their implications to ranks of genus and species of associated taxa. ^[5] The phylogenetic study of Falsistrellus petersi and Nyctalus plancyi in 2012, then later work on vespertilionid taxa of the region, had implications for the inclusion of Indomalayan species, the affinis group, in genus Falsistrellus and a phylogenetic reconstruction (2018) sees them assigned to genus Hypsugo . ^{[6] [7] [5]}

Species

As workers began to outline the diversity of vespertilionids during twentieth century several taxa were allied as the affinis group (Tate, 1942. et al), currently named as Falsistrellus affinis, F. petersi and the inclusion or omission of species F. mordax. The Australian taxa were named for the type as a tasmaniensis group, which came to include the western population as F. mackenziei. ^{[8] [5]}

The ASM MammalDiversity Database recognizes two species: ^[9]

• genus Falsistrellus

• Eastern false pipistrelle or eastern falsistrelle, Falsistrellus tasmaniensis ^[2] An Australian endemic, named for Tasmania and found elsewhere
• Western false pipistrelle or western falsistrelle, Falsistrellus mackenziei. ^[2] This western group is also considered as Falsistrellus tasmaniensis, in treatments combining the remote populations as one species. ^[3]

References

1. Troughton, E (1943). Furred animals of Australia (1st ed.). Sydney: Angus and Robertson. p. 349.
2. Richards, G.C.; Hall, L.S.; Parish, S. (photography) (2012). A natural history of Australian bats : working the night shift. CSIRO Pub. p. 159. ISBN   9780643103740.
3. Simmons, N.B. (2005). "Genus Falsistrellus". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 312–529. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.
4. Kitchener, D.J.; Caputi, N.; Jones, B. (1986). "Revision of Australo-Papuan Pipistrellus and Falsistrellus (Microchiroptera: Vespertilionidae)". Records of the Western Australian Museum. 12: 435–495. ISSN   0312-3162.
5. Görföl, Tamás; Csorba, Gábor (November 2018). "Integrative taxonomy places Asian species of Falsistrellus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) into Hypsugo". Mammalian Biology. 93: 56–63. doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2018.08.004.
6. Ruedi, Manuel; Rickart, Eric A.; Alviola, Phillip; Balete, Danilo S.; Heaney, Lawrence R. (1 January 2012). "Nyctalus plancyi and Falsistrellus petersi (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from Northern Luzon, Philippines: Ecology, Phylogeny, and Biogeographic Implications". Acta Chiropterologica. 14 (2): 265–279. doi:10.3161/150811012X661602. ISSN   1508-1109.
7. Csorba, Gábor; Lim, Burton K.; Eger, Judith L.; Ruedi, Manuel (1 February 2018). "A new genus and species of vespertilionid bat from the Indomalayan Region". Journal of Mammalogy. 99 (1): 209–222. doi:10.1093/jmammal/gyx156. ISSN   0022-2372. PMC   5901079 . PMID   29674788.
8. Tate, G.H.H. (1942). "Review of the vespertilionine bats : with special attention to genera and species of the Archbold collections". Bulletin of the AMNH. 80: 221–297. hdl:2246/1783.
9. Mammal Diversity Database (2021-08-10), Mammal Diversity Database, Zenodo, retrieved 2021-09-19