Rhogeessa

Rhogeessa is a genus of bats within the vesper bats family, Vespertilionidae.^[1]

Rhogeessa
Yucatan yellow bat (Rhogeessa aeneus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Chiroptera
Family:	Vespertilionidae
Tribe:	Antrozoini
Genus:	Rhogeessa H. Allen, 1866
Type species
Rhogeessa tumida H. Allen, 1866
Species
See text

Species

• Yucatan yellow bat (R. aenea)
• Bickham's little yellow bat (Rhogeessa bickhami)
• Genoways's yellow bat (R. genowaysi)
• Husson's yellow bat (R. hussoni)
• Thomas's yellow bat (R. io)
• Menchu's little yellow bat (R. menchuae)
• Tiny yellow bat (R. minutilla)
• Least yellow bat (R. mira)
• Little yellow bat (R. parvula)
• Rhogeessa permutandis
• Black-winged little yellow bat (R. tumida)
• Ecuadorian little yellow bat (R. velilla)

Taxonomy debate

This genus is systematically complex and sometimes controversial. One reason that the genus is complex is because of the species' variable karyotypes:^[2]

30 chromosomes	32 chromosomes	34 chromosomes	42 chromosomes	44 chromosomes	52 chromosomes
R. io[3]	R. aeneus[4]	R. tumida*[5]	R. genowaysi[6][7]	R. parvula[8][9]	R. hussoni[3]
R. tumida*[10]	-	R. velilla[2]	-	R. tumida*[10]
R. gracilis[11]	-	-	-	-	-
R. tumida*[10]	-	-	-	-	-

*Note that R. tumida is listed four times, as individuals have been found with four different karyotypes. This may represent a species complex.^[10][2]

Some have placed Allen's yellow bat into its own genus, Baeodon based on its differences with other members of the genus.^[12] However, others argue that as Allen's yellow bat and the slender yellow bat are sister taxa, to exclude only one from Rhogeessa makes it a paraphyletic group. By that logic, either both species need to be included in Rhogeessa, or both need to be placed in Baeodon.^[2] A 2008 paper recommended moving the slender yellow bat to the Baeodon genus.^[2] Others say that Baeodon should be recognized as a subgenus of Rhogeessa instead of as a separate genus.^[9][13]