On the Nomenclature of snme European Bats. 379 



of l)raii)-casc 22 ; palate leni^th 22"0, l)reailtii between outer 

 cornoid ot" />»* li> ; greatest horizontal dianioter of p'' 5'1, of 

 m* 3-4. 



Hub. Hargaisa, Somalilaml, alt. 1500 rn. 



Type collected by Dr. A. E. Atkinson, Oct. 26, 1896. 



Native name '' JSliog Sliog." 



XLVL. — The Xomenclatare of some European Bats. 

 By Geuiut S. Miller, Jr. 



While working out the synonymy of the North-American 

 Vcspertilionidaj I have found that some glaring errors now 

 pass current in the nomenclature of several European bats. 

 These may be most convenicnrly discussed under three 

 headings: (I.) the genera Vespertilio and Myotis, (II.) the 

 genera Pipistrellus and Pterygistes, and (III.) the genus 

 Barhastella. 



I. The Genera Vespertilio and Myotis. 



The generic name Vef^pertilio has long been applied to the 

 38-tootlied members of the family Vespertilionidai, but in 

 accordance with one of the fundamental laws of nomen- 

 clature — that when a composite genus is subdivided its name 

 can never be transferred to a group not included in the 

 original assemblage — this use of the name is inadmissible. 

 The genus Vespertilio, Linna?us (' Systema Nature,' i, ed. x. 

 pp. 31-32, 1758), included seven species — vampyrus, spectrum, 

 ptrspicillaiusy spusma, leporinus, auritus, and murinus. Only 

 two of these, auritus and murinus, are European. Since it 

 is clear that a non-exotic species should in such a case be 

 made the type of the genus, on the ground that in this v/ay 

 the original meaning of the author will be most closely 

 retained, one of these two must be selected. The species 

 auritus was removed to the genus Plecotus by GeofFroy in 

 1818 (Descr. de I'Jfigypte, Mammif. p. 112). Thus murinus 

 is left as the type of the genus Vespertilio. True Vespertilio 

 7)iurinus, however, is a totally different animal from the one 

 commonly known by that name. To understand the matter 

 fully it is necessary to refer to the two editions of the * Fauna 

 Suecica,' where Linnaeus describes the animal in more detail 

 than in the ' Systema Naturce.' In the first edition he men- 

 tions only one bat, the "Laderlapp," "Fladermus," or '^Natt- 

 blacka." This he calls " Vespertilio caudatus, naso oreque 

 sivipUci^'' (No. 18, p. 7, 174(3). In the second edition two 



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