KPoMOPs. 493 



perhaps cniirely, on soft, fruits, such as iigs and bananas, the 

 contents of whicli they draw out less by real mastication than ))y 

 suction ; and their muzzle, pharynx, cranial rostrum, dentition, and 

 palate-ridges are modified accordingly. The rostrum and ])ahite are 

 increased in length and particularly in breadth, the lips so expansible 

 as to be capable of completely encircling a fruit three or four times 

 the transverse diameter of the mouth in uncxpanded condition ; the 

 thin and somewhat hook-like canines and the sharply pointed 

 anterior premolars pierce tlie rind of the fruit and keep it in 

 position, while it is squeezed between the jaws and pressed upward 

 by the tongue against the thick and prominent interdental palale- 

 ridges ; for the action of suction the spacious pharynx, shnt otf as it 

 is from the posterior nares by its constrictors, communicating in 

 front with the mouth by a small valvular opening, and having its 

 sides supported behind l)y the expanded hyoid bones, constitutes a 

 most perfect exhauster (see Dobson, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 692). The 

 food of these bats requires but little mastication ; hence the 

 dentition is on the whole feeble, and those cheek-teeth which 

 already in Rousettus are considerably reduced in size, viz. p', m^, 

 and m", have completely disappeared : the mandil)le is weakened 

 almost to the same degree as in the Macroglossi (to the mandible 

 of which it bears much general resemblance) ; the temporal muscles 

 extend chiefly upward, less upward-and-backward, the sagittal 

 crest, if present, is therefore developed chiefly in the fron to-parietal, 

 less in the occipital region, and the occiput not deflected downward 

 but directed almost struightly backward. The development of large 

 pharyngeal sacs in the males is probably connected M'ith the 

 jieculiar croaking voice and unusually noisy habits of these animals. 

 Externally, apart from minor modifications, Epomops difl'ers from 

 Itonseftvs chiefly in the almost complete disappearance of the tail 

 and the very high differentiation of the secondary sexual 

 characters. 



RemarTcs. — The present genus has generally not been kept 

 separate from Epomoj^liorus, probably owing to its almost perfect 

 resemblance to the latter genus in the tooth-formula and structure 

 of the teeth, and its almost completelj' similar external characters. 

 Both Epomops and Epwmophorus subsist on soft fruits, but in having 

 adapted themselves to this diet they have, in certain respects, 

 followed essentially different lines of development. In Epomops 

 the rostrum and palate are broadened, in Epomopliorus on the 

 contrary unusually narrow ; in EpiomojJS the postdental palate has 

 preserved the common " Eousettine "' shape, in Epomopliorus it is 

 deeply hollowed out posteriorly, and the palate-ridges are more 

 peculiarly modified ; also the hyoid bones and pharyngeal sacs are 

 different in the two genera. Externally the present genus may he 

 distinguished from Epomopliorus by the greater number and more 

 crowded arrangement of the vertical fascife of the mesoj)atagiura. 

 Epomops is in fact more closely related to IIt/psi(/nathus and Ph-rotes 

 than it is to Epomopliorus. 



