650 CHIROPTERA 



The order is divided by Dobson into the suborders Mega- 

 chiroptera and Microchiroptera. 



Suborder Megachiroptera. 



Frugivorous Bats, generally of large size. Crowns of molars 

 smooth, marked with a longitudinal groove (cuspidate in Pteral- 

 opex) ; bony palate continued behind the last molar, narrowing 

 slowly backwards ; three phalanges in the index finger, the third 

 phalanx generally terminated by a claw ; sides of the ear-conch 

 forming a complete ring at the base ; tail, when present, inferior 

 to (not contained in) the interfemoral membrane ; pyloric extremity 

 of the stomach generally much elongated ; the Spigelian lobe of 

 the liver ill-defined or absent, and the caudate well developed. 



Limited to the tropical and subtropical parts of the eastern 

 hemisphere. 



Mr. 0. Thomas 1 considers that the ordinary type of molar 

 dentition found in this suborder is a specialised adaptation from 

 the cuspidate type of the Microchiroptera ; the genus Pteralopex 

 retaining the ancestral form of teeth. 



Family Pteropodid.e. 



Since all the forms are included in this family its characters 

 may be taken to be the same as those of the suborder. 



Subfamily Pteropodinse. — Tongue moderate ; molars well de- 

 veloped. 



Epomophorus. 2 — Dentition ; i —5—, c \, p f, m 1 ; total 28 or 

 26. Tail absent or very short, when present free from inter- 

 femoral membrane ; second digit of manus clawed ; premaxilla? 

 united. This genus includes some seven species inhabiting Africa 

 south of the Sahara. The head is large and long, and the lips are 

 expansible, and frequently with peculiar folds. The ears have a 

 white tuft of hair on the margin ; and in the males of most species 

 there are large glandular pouches in the skin of the side of the 

 neck near the shoulder, from the mouth of which project long and 

 coarse yellowish hairs, forming tufts on the shoulders, from which 

 the genus takes its name. Another male secondary sexual 

 character consists in the presence of a pair of large air- sacs 

 extending outwards on each side from the pharynx beneath the 

 integument of the neck, in the position shown in Fig. 299. These 

 sacs are evidently capable of being greatly distended at the will of 

 the animal, and their inflation probably occurs under the same 



1 Proc. Zool. Soc. 18SS, p. 473. 

 2 Bennett, Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. ii. p. 38 (1835). 





