-- KUUSETXUS. 



jjreinaxilhiries in coiir.>icL (not separated), lu, not lengthened, and lU" 

 less reduced in size, Rousettus is less specialized tlian Eidolon ; but it 

 is on a higher level in the rather shorter rostrum and more reduced p\ 

 The range of the genus over the whole of the Ethiopian and Oriental 

 regions, the close affinity of ]l. arahicus to the S. African 2i. Uachi, 

 the absence of any representative of the genus from the whole of 

 the Srediterraneau subregion * (except Egypt), are evidence that its 

 origin dates back to a time when, owing to different physiographic 

 conditions, Africa andS. x\sia were much more intimately connected 

 than now. Eidolon is a peculiarly modified Ethiopian offshoot of 

 the common prototype. 



The eleven known species fall into three natural, rather sharply 

 separated groups (subgenera) : — 



(!) Subgenus Eousettus : — Brain-case moderately deflected ; 

 premaxillaries in contact, not co-ossified (except sometimes in 

 li. mjiiptiacm) ; cheek-teeth unmodified in size and shape ; p^ 

 much larger in bulk than a lower incisor; wings from first toe; 

 antitragal lobe small, but distinct. — This is the least specialized 

 of the three subgenera of Housettus, in all essential characters 

 perhaps the most primitive group of living Vlegacbiroptera. Range : 

 the Ethiopian Itegion, through Egypt, Cyprus, Palestine, Arabia, 

 8. Asia, the Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan Archipelagos, 

 eastward to the Solomon Islands. The nine species are referable 

 to three types : — (a) K. lecichi, (egi/j^tiaai^, and arahicus : rather 

 heavily built species, with strong rostrum and teeth, the second 

 phalanx of third digit lengthened, the poUex comparatively long : 

 distributed over Africa generally, Cyi)ru'5. Palestine, Syria, and 

 Arabia, as far as Sind (Karachi), li. ivi/i/pticicns is a larger-skulled 

 modification of the li. leachi type ; li. arahicua is more closely 

 allied to the S. African R. leachi than to R. agyptiacm. — (b) R. le- 

 scheiiaidti, seminadus, nnrple.vicaudatus, wiinor, and hracliyotis : very 

 closely related to the species of the former section, but rather more 

 delicately built, wirh slenderer rostrum, feebler teeth, the second 

 phalanx of tiie third digit not lengthened, the pollex comparatively 

 shorter. The members of this section are probably on the whole 

 slightly less specialized than those of the former. R. lexdiemmlti 

 (continental S. Asia) and semiuudxs (Ceylon) come near to the 

 S. African Ji. leachi in the width of the interspace between c and p^, 

 the size and shape of m^, the width of the ears, and the shortness 

 ot the tail ; in the Indo-lfalayan R. ampleA-icandatus there is a 

 tendency to a reduction of the diastema c-p\ m^ is smaller and 

 more circular in outline, the ears narrower, the tail averaging 

 longer, the general dimeiisions smaller ; most of these characters 



* Botisettus fft/i'ltiri/i. 'froupssart ("Cat. Miuiiui., Suppl. p. fiO, 1904; baped 

 on Cf/iioni/cteris (?) sp., Claude Gaillard, C. R. Aonrl. Sci. cxxv. p. (i20, 1897, 

 and Arch. Mus. d'Hist. Nat. I,yon. vii., 2 meiu. p. 6, fig-. 1, 1899), known from 

 a complete right humerus and the dista! extieinities of a risfht and lelt humerus, 

 from the Middle Miooene of La Grive Saint-Allian, Lsere. is not a liuuseftus, 

 nor even a Fruit- Br,t, but some large species of Microchiroptera, as proved by 

 Gaillard's figure of the humerus (1. s. c. : high, flange-like deltoid crest). 



