Morphology and genetics concur that Anoura carishina is a synonym of Anoura latidens (Chiroptera, Glossophaginae)

Abstract

Abstract Anoura carishina was described based on cranial and dental morphology, but the original analyses did not include Anoura latidens, a similar species of Anoura. We used morphological, morphometric, and genetic analyses to evaluate the taxonomic identity of A. carishina. We performed a principal components analysis to evaluate the correspondence between morphological and taxonomic groups for 260 specimens of large-bodied Anoura (A. carishina, Anoura geoffroyi, A. latidens, and Anoura peruana), and statistically analyzed traits diagnostic for A. latidens, including (1) morphology of the third upper premolar (P4), (2) size of the second (P3) and third (P4) upper premolars, and (3) angle formed by the maxillary toothrows. We find that A. latidens and A. carishina are indistinguishable, and share several characters lacking in A. geoffroyi, including a P4 with triangular shape, an under-developed anterobasal cusp in the P3, a smaller braincase, and a shorter rostrum. Phylogenetic analyses using ultra-conserved elements infer that the holotype and two paratype specimens of A. carishina are paraphyletic and nested within A. latidens, while one paratype diagnosable by morphology as A. geoffroyi nests within A. geoffroyi samples. We demonstrate that A. carishina should be considered a junior synonym of A. latidens, updating the distribution of the latter.