Systematics of the genus Plecotus (Mammalia, Vespertilionidae) in Austria based on morphometric and molecular investigations

Uni- and multivariate analyses of skull measurements of 215 Plecotus specim ens (190 from Austria and 25 from the Balkan peninsula) revealed the existe nce of three morphologically distinct groups: P. auritus (from all over Aus tria and Albania), P. austriacus (from NE and SE Austria, Croatia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkish Thrace), and a third taxon that could be ass igned to P. austriacus kolombatovici Dulic, 1980 (from S Austria, Croatia, Bosnia and Greece). Dendrograms obtained from a partial sequence of the mit ochondrial control region of 24 Plecotus specimens grouped the material in three clades corresponding to the three morphological groups. These clades are differentiated by surprisingly high genetic distances (20.3-21.8 % betw een austriacus and auritus, 28.8-30.2 % between austriacus and kolombatovic i, and 14.0-17.5 % between auritus and kolombatovici). From these results w e conclude that P. kolombatovici represents a very well differentiated spec ies that is more closely related to P, auritus than to P, austriacus which it resembles morphologically. While P. austriacus is characterised by genet ic uniformity throughout a wide geographic range from Spain to Thrace, P. a uritus is genetically differentiated into an eastern and a western lineage. According to our results P. kolombatovici inhabits a distribution area ext ending from Liguria south of the Alps along the southern Balkan to Greece.