Taxonomic status of Myotis myotis (Borkhausen, 1797) and Myotis blythii (Tomes, 1857) in Turkey(Mammalia: Chiroptera)*

Abstract

Morphometrical, biological, ecological, and karyological data of 156 Myotis myotis and 149 M. blythii specimens collected from various provinces of Turkey between 1974 and 2007 were evaluated. Specimens from Turkish Thrace were referred to as M. m. myotis and the Mediterranean part as M. m. macrocephalicus. Specimens from the rest of Anatolia were assigned to an intermediate form. Due to a steady increase in body and cranial size detected in Myotis blythii from western to eastern Anatolia, we did not assign a subspecific name for the M. blythii populations in Turkey. In addition, body and cranial measurements of this species lie between those given for the smaller subspecies M. b. oxgnathus from Europe and the larger M. b. omari from the Near East and the Middle East. In both species, the karyotype was similar to that of the other Myotis species having a 44 chromosome with a NFa 50. The X chromosome was a medium-sized metacentric while the Y was a minute acrocentric.