The Study Of Phallic Morphology Of Ten Species Of Bats (Vesperlionidae) From Sichuan Province, China And Discussion On Taxonomic Significance

Mammals were categorized traditional mainly acording to the morphologic charecteristic such as, skulls, teeth, hair color and so on. It is difficult to accurately identify sibling species through traditional taxonomic approach. To resolve this problem, taxonomist did some trial in genetics, cytology, immunology, ecology, molecular biology and provided useful information for accurate species indentification from different aspects. Phallic Morphology also provided evidence for species identification from another aspect. Phallic Morphology originated from the comprehension of the definition of species that species is the natural population that can not only copulate one another but also produce reproducible offsprings, and these populations are isolated reproductively with other populations. Since there exsists reproductive isolation between different species, so as the copulative organ, dose phallus has specific or generic speciality? Then with the doubt scientists found phallic bones. They found that phallic bones and the soft structures of glans were useful for categorizing species. Because phallic bones develop inside the copulative organ, and their special position make them endure smaller environmental stress than limbs and skulls, so they has high specific and generic properties. The morphologic differences of bacula are the main factor of reprodctive isolation. And the soft structures of glans also have high specific and generic properties. So a new subjectappeared, that was phallic morphology. In mammals 7 orders or some species of these orders have baulum. They are Insetivora, Chiroptera, Primates, Carnivora, Pinnipedia and Cetacea. There were many reports overseas on differentiating species using phallic morphology, especial the the species that had closely taxonomic status or that exsited different opions. Some researchers constructed phylogenetic tree and adjusted the taxonomic status of some species. According to provious researches, the correlative researches at present mainly concentrated on rodents, and there were also many reports about Chiropteras.Chiroptera is the second biggest order of mammals. It is the only mammalian group that has actual flying ability, and it plays an important role in ecosystem. In our country the taxonomy of Chiroptera was rather confused, and there were many different viewpoints concerning the actual number of species of Chiroptera. Bianfuke is the biggest family of Chiroptera. It is generally accepted that there are about 70 species in our country, and 25 in Sichuan province.A detailed comparison of phallic morphology in the family Vespterlionidae from Sichuan province is presented in this study. We tried to provide evidence for bat indentification,to solve some controversial problems,and to explore the relationship among species.These species belong to 6 genera, 10 species of the family Vespterlionidae, with a toatal number of 49 penises are prepared and carefully checked, some features were measuredAccording to these measurements, we undertook an analysis of numerical taxonomy and depicted the phylogenetic tree of the 10 species in the family Vespterlionidae.The glans are examined and photoed under electronic scanning microscope.The results indicate that physical characteristics of glans and baculum have intergeneric and interspecific differences,which can be used as an very important reference in classification, and can also be extremely useful in reconstructing phylogenesis of bats.The results also show that the features of glans and baculum of Myotis ricketti are markedly different from those of other 4 species in Myotis genus,so we advice that Myotis ricketti should be elevated to another genus.