Africa hosts a high number of bat species, many of which have been poorly studied. Among African vesper bats (Vespertilionidae), some species are morphologically similar to each other, hampering identification in the field. Consequently, basic information on these species' population dynamics, distributions, or behaviors is vague and/or incorrectly documented. Among some Vespertilionidae, variation in flaccid penis shape enables species identification. This variation in morphology is thought to have resulted from sexual selection operating on the erect penis. Furthermore, in the context of strong postcopulatory competition, divergence in sperm traits may have evolved among closely related species. These male reproductive characters have hitherto not been investigated in southern African vespertilionid bats. In this study, we present the morphology of flaccid penis, erect penis, and sperm, of six small vesper species, based on the prediction that these characters have evolved sufficiently toward different optima to allow species discrimination. Species identification based solely on the morphological characters of the penis entirely matched species identification based on traditional (craniodental) characters. We illustrate penis morphology of these species to assist with field identifications for future ecological, conservation, or behavioral studies. Sperm morphology was sufficient to discriminate between the different genera, but could not reliably separate Neoromicia nana, Ne. zuluensis, and Ne. capensis. Hence, we demonstrate that these difficult to identify species can be readily distinguished based on traits directly observable in the field and on living animals, which will lead to more focused field studies on these otherwise morphologically cryptic species. Finally, our comparisons of penis morphology support the suggestion that Hypsugo anchietae is better placed within the genus Neoromicia.

中文翻译：

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阴茎形态有助于识别神秘的非洲蝙蝠物种

非洲拥有大量蝙蝠物种，其中许多物种研究不足。在非洲晚祷蝙蝠 (Vespertilionidae) 中，一些物种在形态上彼此相似，阻碍了野外鉴定。因此，关于这些物种的种群动态、分布或行为的基本信息是模糊的和/或记录不正确的。在一些 Vespertilionidae 中，松弛阴茎形状的变化可以识别物种。这种形态变化被认为是对勃起阴茎进行性选择的结果。此外，在强烈的交配后竞争的背景下，精子性状的差异可能在密切相关的物种之间进化。这些雄性生殖特征迄今尚未在南部非洲蝙蝠中进行过研究。在这项研究中，我们展示了六个小型晚祷物种的松弛阴茎、勃起阴茎和精子的形态，基于这些特征已经向不同的最佳状态充分进化以允许物种区分的预测。仅基于阴茎形态特征的物种识别完全匹配基于传统（颅牙）特征的物种识别。我们说明了这些物种的阴茎形态，以协助进行未来生态、保护或行为研究的现场鉴定。精子形态足以区分不同的属，但不能可靠地分离 Neoromicia nana，Ne。zuluensis 和 Ne。辣椒。因此，我们证明，这些难以识别的物种可以根据在田间和活体动物上直接观察到的特征很容易地区分出来，这将导致对这些其他形态学上神秘的物种进行更集中的田间研究。最后，我们对阴茎形态的比较支持了这样的建议，即 Hypsugo anchietae 更好地置于 Neoromicia 属中。