Parahypsugo Hutterer & Decher & Monadjem & Astrin 2019, gen. nov.

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences (Life Sciences)

Parahypsugo, gen. nov. Type species Parahypsugo happoldorum, sp. nov. Other species included in the new genus Parahypsugo crassulus (Thomas, 1904), P. eisentrauti (Hill, 1968) and P. bellieri (De Vree, 1972). Etymology A combination of the Greek prefix para (beside, near) with Hypsugo, emphasizing the close genetic and morphological relationships between the two genera. Distribution Tropical Africa from Guinea in the west to Sudan and Somalia in the east, and south to Congo, DRC, Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya (Patterson and Webala, 2012; Bates et al., 2013; Monadjem et al., 2013; Decher et al., 2016; Van Cakenberghe et al., 2017). This genus is probably widely distributed in the rainforest zone of Africa, and occurs from 70 m to over 2,200 m a.s.l. (Happold and Happold, 2013). Diagnosis Medium-sized bats of the Vespertilionidae family forming a clade between Hypsugo and Pipistrellus (Fig. 1) with a broad and simple rhinarium (Fig. 2), second incisor small with traces of second cusp (Fig. 6), smooth rostrum and strongly pointed margins (Fig. 4), external penis bent with long terminal hairs (Fig. 3a), and baculum straight with on the cingulum of the second incisor (not present in Hypsugo). Scale is 1 mm larger structure (Fig. 3b). on basal part; diameter curved Morphological comparisons Based on the phylogenetic tree, Parahypsugo is closely related to the genera Hypsugo, Neoromicia and Pipistrellus (Fig. 1) and hence we compare these genera morphologically. Externally, Parahypsugo is characterized by its broad and flat rhinarium (Fig. 2), where the Pars supranarica and internarica cover most of the Pars supralabialis. The skull of Parahypsugo has a smooth rostrum, while Hypsugo has two large and deep pits on either side of the rostrum. Neoromicia has two straight rims, while the skull of Pipistrellus shows a simple smooth rostrum (Fig. 4). Furthermore, in Parahypsugo the lateral margin of the rostrum is pointed, while the margin is straight in the other genera. Nycticeinops Hill and Harrison, 1987 is cranio-dentally somewhat similar but differs by the lack of a second upper incisor (Hill and Harrison, 1987). The new bat species During the survey of the Simandou Mountains in Guinea (Decher et al., 2016), we captured seven individuals of a small bat, four of which were preserved and three released. We first assigned them to the genus Hypsugo, after tentatively naming them Neoromicia cf. capensis: two in the canopy net over the creeks at Foko Confluence (8°29’48.62”N, 8°54’48.22”W; 737 m a.s.l.), one in a forest net at 2.3 km east Tourela (08°30’31.99”N, 008°56’59.60”W; 621 m a.s.l.), three over the creek in the Western Spur Valley (08°33’26.44”N, 08°55’16.50”W; 900 m a.s.l.) and one over the creek in gallery forest at Canga Moribadou Road (8°35’35.65”E, 8°51’25.85”W; 750 m a.s.l.). See Decher et al. (2016) for a map with these localities. The bats ranged in body mass from 7 to 14 g. Female ZFMK-MAM-2008.0295 carried two embryos. In the molecular analysis (Fig. 1) the four preserved specimens group with a specimen from Mount Nimba (DM 13225) previously labeled Neoromicia sp. 1 (Monadjem et al., 2013), which was collected in forest at an altitude of 1,400 m above sea level in the East Nimba Nature Reserve (Monadjem et al., 2016). This new species lacks the “much reduced, small” anterior premolar described by Hill and Harrison (1987: 244) as a characteristic of the genus Hypsugo, but all the remaining Parahypsugo species have this character (Fig. 7). Scale is 1 mm