188 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



RECURRENCE op MEGADERMA GIG AS, DOBSON. 

 By Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S., Zoologist. 



Twenty years ago Dobson described Megaderma gigas, a new 

 species of Bat from Australia,* since which time no further example 

 has been made known. The type taken at Mount Margaret, 

 Wilson's River, Queensland, is a male and is in the Gottingen 

 Museum. 



On the 9th February, the Trustees received from Mr. Fred.Hogan, 

 by presentation, a specimen of the same species, taken in thePilbarra 

 District, Northern West Australia. This is a female, and presents 

 some few differences from the description of the male. The example 

 was mounted before reaching us, so that in the following table of 

 dimensions, the measurements of the length of the head and body 

 are approximate only ; the other dimensions are, however, absolute. 



Dobson's measurements are recorded in inches and tenths — these 

 I have reduced to millimetres for comparison with my own figures, 

 so expressed. From these it will be seen that the female, which is 

 adult, is generally smaller than the male, but the lengths of the tibia 

 and the first phalanx of the fifth finger are actually greater; more 

 striking, perhaps, is the relative difference in the phalanx of the 

 second finger, but this supports and emphasises Dobson's statement — 

 "While in M. spasma the extremity of the second finger does not 

 extend as far as the middle of the first phalanx of the third finger, 

 in this species [i/. gigas\ as in AI. frons, it extends beyond it." 



Further evidence that the West Australian example is referable 

 to M. gigas is supplied by the circumstance of the extremity of 

 the carpus, the thumb, and the membrane between the thumb and 

 the second finger being hairy, in which respect it differs from the 

 other known species. 



The mamma3 are two in number ; they are situated one on each 

 side of the upper abdominal region. 



The colour does not differ from Dobson's desciption, but the 

 pale grey of the upper surface shows brownish tints in certain 

 lights ; there is now no indication of the deep blood-red colour 

 at the anterior base of the ears, shown in Dobson's figure and 

 described as being present in the type when obtained, but which 

 had apparently faded out before the author saw the specimen. 



* Dobson— Proc. Zool. Soc, 1880, p. 461, pi. xlvi. 



