| Summary: | In contrast to the Eastern Palaearctic region a high degree of cryptic diversity was discovered among temperate bats of the Western Palaearctic region in the last ten years. Climatic oscillations caused severe changes in the distribution of species throughout the Palaearctic region during the Pleistocene. Exploring multiple taxa can help to understand general evolutionary differentiation processes. In the present study genetic variation within and among 94 Mongolian vespertilionid bats of six genera (Hypsugo, Eptesicus, Vespertilio, Myotis, Plecotus, and Nyctalus) was screened by sequencing a 798 bp fragment of the mitochondrial ND1 gene and then subsequently compared with those of Western Palaearctic taxa. This allowed first insights in the differentiation among a wide range of bats across the Palaearctic region. A total of 16 distinct mitochondrial lineages were found in Mongolia. Thirteen lineages differed by at least five percent sequence divergence from Western Palaearctic species. Only three lineages (Eptesicus nilssonii, Vespertilio murinus, and Nyctalus noctula) showed lower divergence values. Our data demonstrate a substantial differentiation between most Western and Eastern Palaearctic vespertilionid bats. Estimations of divergence times showed that most divergence appeared prior to the Pleistocene, but current distributions of bats were most likely shaped by the usage of multiple refugia during glaciations. Department of Mammalogy and Ornithology, Natural History Museum of Geneva, Geneva, We report the first records of Nyctalus plancyi from the Philippines, on the basis of three specimens taken in high-elevation mossy forest in the Central Cordillera of northern Luzon. We also report three new specimens of Falsistrellus petersi in the same areas, previously a poorly known species within the Philippines, and provide the first genetic data on the phylogenetic position of the genus. Analysis of sequence data from the mitochondrial gene cytochrome b shows ca. 4% divergence of the Philippine N. plancyi ...
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