Hipposideros halophyllus Hill and Yenbutra, 1984

Hipposideros halophyllus Hill and Yenbutra, 1984: 77; Khao Sa Moa Khon (= Khao Sa Moa Khon), Tha Woong (= Ta Woong), Lop Buri, THAILAND (Kitti Thonglongya, collector; TNRC 54–3694) [115].

Common English name: Thai Roundleaf Bat

Barcode Index Number: BOLD:AAX1220 (1 DNA barcode from Peninsular Malaysia; Fig 4)

Remarks: The BIN also contains a DNA barcode labelled as H. ater from India which was originally mined from Genbank. The DNA barcode of “ H. ater ” is likely to be a case of misidentification as H. halophyllus and H. ater are distinct species. H. halophyllus has a kidneyshaped internarial septum whereas H. ater has a slightly inflated and triangular internarial septum [30]. It is unlikely that H. ater occurs in Peninsular Malaysia due to the lack of any records, however, Peninsular Malaysia is included in the distribution range of H. ater in some literature [1, 9].

IUCN status: Vulnerable

Recorded at: Perak: Bukit Jerneh Cave and Tumang Lembing Cave [30] .

H. halophyllus has been recorded in and nearby limestone caves in Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand [14, 30]. It is unknown whether H. halophyllus is strictly confined to limestone areas or this association is an effect of limited sampling but it is likely that the species requires specialised roosting habitat [30].

Hipposiderosbicolor speciescomplex. Hipposiderosbicolor wasfirstrecognisedasacryptic species complex by Kingston et al. [16] who discovered two phonic types under H. bicolor sensu lato with individuals echolocating at 131 kHz (= H. bicolor 131) or at 142 kHz (= H. bicolor 142). The two phonic types are 6.5–6.8% divergent in mtDNA [16] yet morphologically similar and overlap in size [16]. Although the phonic types have been widely recognised as distinct species, some recent reports still use H. bicolor to represent both phonic types [50, 61, 67, 111] which leads to ambiguity regarding the occurrence of the species. The two phonic types were recently formalised under Latin names: H. bicolor (= bicolor131) and H. atrox (= bicolor142) [17]. However, our search of DNA barcodes on BOLD coupled with recent DNA barcoding suggested that the H. bicolor complex is even more complicated (Fig 4).