noBsoNid. 457 



The pointed cars are so persistent a character iu all known species 

 that they may be presumed to be an inheritance from the extinct 

 prototype of the geuus. 



Plastic characters. — All known species of Bobsonia are essentially 

 rilike in the characters of the skull, incisors, canines, and palate- 

 ridges, the shape and relative size of the ears, the length of the 

 tail, the wing-structure and insertion of the membranes, and the 

 distribution, quality, length, and colour of the fur. The plastic 

 characters are, first and chietly, the detailed structure of the molars 

 and premolars, second and only to a small extent, the degree of 

 shortening of the rostrum (shortest in species with highly specialized 

 cheek-teeth), and third, the general size of the animal. The primary 

 groups of the genus are here based on the four progressive stages 

 of molar-structure (see Synopsis, p. 459). Between the D. minor 

 group and the three other main groups of the gentis the gap is in 

 this respect a little broader than between these latter inter se. 



History of sjjecies in literature. — Bats of this genus were unknown 

 to zoologists until E. Geoffroy, in 1810, described his Pteropus 

 paUiatus and Cephalotes peruni ((ieoffroy's " Pleropus cephalotes," 

 ISO'3, is in reality Pleropus palliatus mixed up with characters 

 borrowed from Ballas's description of " Vespertilio cepJialotes"). 

 Pt. paUiatus is, and since the type is lost will always remain, 

 indeterminable : Cephalotes peroni is the earliest 2iame of the 

 species inhabiting Timor and some neighbouring islands. The 

 c'dlectious made during the voyage of the 'Astrolabe' added one 

 species, Hi/poderma moluccense, Quoy and Gaimard, 1S30, from 

 Amboina ; though in fact a distinct species, it was by Temminck, 

 in 1837, put down as synonymous with Cephalotes peroni, and till 

 cjuite recently (1909) all writers accepted Temminck's decision. 

 Nearly half a century passed without further additions to the list 

 of species ; the three principal revisers of the genus during this 

 long period, viz. Peters in 1867, Gray in 1870, and Dobsoii in 1878, 

 simply copied Tomminck in recognizing only one species, Cephalotes 

 peroni, with the synonyms Pteropus palliatus and Hypoderma 

 violuccense. In 1879 Dobson described a new species from N.W. 

 Xew Guinea, Cej^haloies minor; the type in the Paris Museum 

 remained for many years the only specimen known, until in 1909 

 a second example was discovered in the rich collection of Dobsonia 

 preserved in Leyden. In 1896 Heude named and briefly described 

 the Key Island species, Cephalotes viridig. The next reviser 

 (Matschie, 1899) again failed to work out the genus; all the 

 then described four species were united under one heading, Cepha- 

 lotes paUiatus. The year 1 905 added two new species, Dobsonia 

 magna. Thomas, from New Guinea, and Cephalotes pannietensis , 

 De Vis, from the Louisiade Archipelago. The latest reviser 

 (K. Andersen, 1909) pointed out the difl'erential characters of 

 Dobsonia peroni, moluccensis, minor, niridis, magna, and pannietensis, 

 and added six new species, D. exoleta (Celebes), sumbana (Sumba), 

 crenulata (Gilolo group), pr(BdatrixiBismarck Archipelago), inermi^ 

 /E. Solomon Is.), and ne>'ca (W. and Central Solomon Is.). 



