MACROGLOSSUS, SYCONYCTERIS ETC. 131 



NOTE XVIII. 



REVISION OF THE GENERA ^fACROGLOSSUS 



AND SVCOXVCTERIS 



AND DESCRIPTION OF A NEW GENUS AND SPECIES, 



ODONTONYCTERIS MEIJERI 



Dr. P. A. JENTINK. 



24 April 1902. 



The small frugivorous Bats formerly headed under the 

 specific title of Macroglossus minimus have been split into 

 two subgenera and seven species by Mr. Matschie (Die 

 Fledermause des Berliner Museums fur Naturkunde, 1. Lie- 

 ferung, 1899). These subgenera are Macroglossus and Stjco- 

 nycteris, distinguished the one from the other under more 

 by a character so typically pronounced, that I think this 

 alone may suffice to make them worthy of generic rank. 

 1 mean the incisors, so minute in Macroglossus, mean- 

 while they are so well developed in Syconycteris ; the diffe- 

 rence in size is so great, that even palaeontologists might 

 tell you without any hesitation whether a given fossil jaw 

 with incisors belonged once to a species of the one or of 

 the other genus. 



Another radical character is that in Macroglossus the 

 wing-membrane is attached to the base of the fourth toe, 

 in Syconycteris however to the base of the fifth toe. Mr. 

 Matschie had but few specimens to his disposal therefore 



ISotes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. XXIII. 



