454 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.99 



and the obscurus groups. Small and overlapping size differences 

 combined with minor color differences were indicated for distinguish- 

 ing each of these three divisions of small species. Additional material 

 shows that the variation in size and color among these small species 

 with distance across canines less than 5 mm. is even greater than had 

 been supposed by Miller. Differences in color, especially, appear to 

 represent nothing more than tonal variations m the light and dark 

 phases of the same species. Sanborn (op. cit.) found, in agreement 

 with earlier authors, that cnrrentium and obscurus are conspecific. 

 This conclusion combines, in effect, ^Miller's three groups of small 

 molossids. The present series from northern Colombia shows 

 extremes in cranial and external measurements that grade into the 

 larger obscurus on the one hand and the smaller pygmaeus on the 

 other. The series averages larger in size than insular forms of major, 

 the oldest name available for most of the members of Miller's gi-oups 

 of small forms. As Miller records specimens of major from Vene- 

 zuela with which the present series agrees, this may be the name 

 adopted for the small northern Colombian Molossus. Further com- 

 parisons of the northern Colombian bats show them to be practically 

 indistinguishable from pale phase individuals from Ecuador (Guaya- 

 quil and Santa Rosa) and northwestern Peru (Piura) indentified by 

 Miller {op. cit., p. 92) as pygmaeus. Apparently a smiliar bat from 

 the same region was described later by Allen as M. daulensis. It 

 appears that in addition to obscurus, pygmaeus, currentium, and crassi- 

 caudatus the specific synonyms of major may include daulensis, 

 coibensis, and aztecus. Pending a revision of the genus, these names 

 should be conserved, at least provisionally, as subspecies of Molossus 

 major. The width of the brain case given for the type of M. burnsi 

 Thomas does not now appear to be too excessive for the group. 

 M. bondae Allen, regarded by Miller as one of the small groups of 

 Molossus, was first described as larger than any of them. 



MOLOSSUS BONDAE Allen 



Molossus bondae Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 20, p. 28, 1904. — 

 Miller, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 46, p. 89, 1913 (revision, no Colombian 

 specimens examined). 



Type locality. — Bonda, Rio Manzanares, 7 miles east of Santa 

 Marta, Magdalena, Colombia. 



U. S. GOVERNMENT PR1NT1N3 OFFICE: 1949 



