Study On Infraspecific Classification And Habitat Selection Of Hipposideros Armiger

Hipposideros armiger of Hipposideros genus (Chiroptera: Microchiroptera: Hipposideridae) distributein13provinces in China, such as Yunnan, Guangdong, Guangxi. At present, subspecies division anddistribution of H. armiger of China are still controversial, different scholars identified H. armiger indifferent regions as different species or subspecies. Researches on habitat selection and ecological behaviorare few. To explore morphological and molecular variation and classification status of H. armiger,193H.armiger were collected using mist nets and hand nets from69habitats in nine provinces in central andsouthern China, from2011to2013. After external indicators were measured,29H. armiger were injected95%alcohol and taken to laboratory. Their skulls were extracted and made into skeleton. Their bodies weremade into stufffed or soak specimen. The rest of collected samples were released. Morphological and Cyt bsequence divergences of H. armiger from nine provinces, namely Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Yunnan,Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi and Hainan, were studied detailedly. Meanwhile, habitat selection andconserve states and lifestyle were studied, and some protective suggestions were proposed.1. We analyze16external morphology indicators such as head and body length, forearm length, clawlength and25skull indicators such as greatest skull length, condylo-basal length, zygomatic width by usingone way ANOVA, principal component analysis and cluster analysis. The results show that:⑴One wayANOVA results showed that eight indexes of external morphology exist significant differences in16indicators and fifteen indexes exist significant differences in25indicators of skull. These distinguishsappeared overlap between different populations rather than some particular populations. Therefore we can’tclearly distinguish one species with another. Multiple comparison results show that, although there aredifferences between two poputions the different variables are not fixed.⑵External characteristicvariables of H. armiger were analyzed by using Principal component analysis, The first four principalcomponents accounted for60.114%. The plot were drawn with the scores of the first two principalcomponents and the scatter scores overlapped and can’t distinguish. Analyzed skull characteristic variablesfor H.armiger were analyzed using Principal component analysis, the first three principal componentsaccounted for63.824%. The plot drawn with the scores of the first two principal components and the resultwas accordant to that of the external characteristic variables.⑶Cluster analysis results showed that the external not consistent with the skull and unable to distinguish one population. According to the results ofexternal and skull, H.armiger of nine provinces should belong to the same subspecies.2. Have compared the Cytochrome b gene sequences differences among nine provinces. Sequencing35individuals, the length is1140bp, conservative sites are1086, variable sites are54, mutation loci simpleinformation site are28. In total received18haploid types, haploid type diversity is1.000, nucleotidepolymorphisms (Pi) is0.2135%.19cave indicators of69caves, such as temperature, humidity and cave length were analysed usingIndependent-samples t test, Principal component analysis, Mann-Whitney U and Chi-square test. Theresults are shown below.⑴For54caves inhabited by bats, When20caves inhabited by H. armiger werecompared with34habitats without the species, no significant difference was found in essentialcharacteristics of caves.⑵Compared the15hibernation caves with5non-hibernating caves, the resultsshow that very significant difference exists in illuminance, and there is significant difference in the numberof entrances and cave length. Hibernation caves generally have lower illuminance, longer cave length andless number of entrances.⑶When11breeding habitats of H. armiger were compared with9non-breeding habitats, the results show that very significant difference exists in humidity, and there issignificant difference in illuminance and cave length. Breeding caves generally have lower humidity, lowerilluminance and longer cave length.⑷When caves inhabited by H. armiger were compared with caveswithout the species, no significant difference was found in interference distance, while significantdifference exist in interference degree. Caves inhabited by H. armiger had relatively slight interference.