AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES 
Number 3963, 37 pp. January 13, 2021 
A new dichromatic species of Myotis 
(Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) 
from the Nimba Mountains, Guinea 
NANCY B. SIMMONS,! JON FLANDERS,!? ERIC MOISE BAKWO FILS,? GUY 
PARKER,‘ JAMISON D. SUTER,* SEINAN BAMBA,* MORY DOUNO,> MAMADY 
KOBELE KEITA,®° ARIADNA E. MORALES,!'”? AND WINIFRED F, FRICK* 8 
ABSTRACT 
The genus Myotis is a diverse group of vespertilionid bats found on nearly every continent. 
One clade in this group, the subgenus Chrysopteron, is characterized by reddish to yellowish 
fur and, in some cases, visually striking dichromatic wing pigmentation. Here, we describe a 
new dichromatic species of Myotis (Chrysopteron) from the Nimba Mountains in Guinea. The 
new species is superficially similar to Myotis welwitschii, but phylogenetic analyses based on 
cytochrome b data indicated that it is actually more closely related to M. tricolor. Discovery of 
this new taxon increases the number of Myotis species known from mainland Africa to 11 spe- 
cies, although patterns of molecular divergence suggest that cryptic species in the Chrysopteron 
clade remain to be described. This discovery also highlights the critical importance of the 
Nimba Mountains as a center of bat diversity and endemism in sub-Saharan Africa. 
' Division of Vertebrate Zoology (Mammalogy), American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
* Bat Conservation International, Austin, Texas. 
3 Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, University of Maroua, Maroua, Cameroon. 
* Société des Mines de Fer de Guinée, Conakry, Guinea. 
> Centre de Gestion de Environnement des Monts Nimba et Simandou/Ministére de ’Environnement, des 
Eaux et Foréts, Conakry, Guinea. 
° Guinée Ecologie, Dixinn, Conakry, Guinea. 
7 Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany. 
* Department Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz. 
Copyright © American Museum of Natural History 2021 ISSN 0003-0082 
