02313nas a2200253   4500008004100000245013600041210006900177260001200246300001200258490000700270520142600277653001201703653002701715653001901742653001301761653003301774653002301807653002601830653002701856100002201883700001501905700001501920856012401935       2001                        eng d00aSystematics of the genus <i>Plecotus </i>(Mammalia, Vespertilionidae) in Austria based on morphometric and molecular investigations0 aSystematics of the genus iPlecotus iMammalia Vespertilionidae in  c2001///  a161-1720 v503 aUni- and multivariate analyses of skull measurements of 215 Plecotus specimens (190 from Austria and 25 from the Balkan peninsula) revealed the existence of three morphologically distinct groups: P auritus (from all over Austria and Albania), P. austriacus (from NE and SE Austria, Croatia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkish Thrace), and a third taxon that could be assigned to P. austriacus kolombatovici Dulic?, 1980 (from S Austria, Croatia, Bosnia and Greece). Dendrograms obtained from a partial sequence of the mitochondrial 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% between austriacus and auritus, 28.8-30.2% between austriacus and kolombatovici, and 14.0-17.5% between auritus and kolombatovici). From these results we conclude that P. kolombatovici represents a very well differentiated species that is more closely related to P. auritus than to P. austriacus which it resembles morphologically. While P. austriacus is characterised by genetic uniformity throughout a wide geographic range from Spain to Thrace, P. auritus is genetically differentiated into an eastern and a western lineage. According to our results P. kolombatovici inhabits a distribution area extending from Liguria south of the Alps along the southern Balkan to Greece.10aAustria10aDiscriminant functions10aGenus Plecotus10aMammalia10aMitochondrial control region10aMolecular analysis10amorphometric analysis10aPlecotus kolombatovici1 aSpitzenberger, F.1 aPialek, J.1 aHaring, E.  uhttps://icgf.myspecies.info/content/systematics-genus-plecotus-mammalia-vespertilionidae-austria-based-morphometric-and