DO MOLECULES MATCH MORPHOLOGY?
CRYPTIC LINEAGES AND POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION IN THE NORTH AMERICAN LONG-EARED BATS (GENUS CORYNORHINUS). Antoinette J. Piaggio. University of Colorado Boulder, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Box 334 Room 122 Ramaley Building, Boulder, CO, USA. ABSTRACT- Animals from genetically divergent lineages may maintain phenotypic similarity due to niche specialization. Such lineages may persist undetected by taxonomy derived from morphology. This is true for threatened and endangered species of North American long-eared bats (genus Corynorhinus). Cryptic lineages have been inferred to exist within C. townsendii and C. rafinesquii from a mitochondrial DNA phylogeny. These lineages are as divergent as typical species-level divergences. Are these cryptic lineages actually cryptic species? To answer this question, population genetics techniques are used to compare population structure from maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA and from autosomal microsatellite loci, which have a paternal cont
