Bats from the Solomon Inlands. 269 



Colour. — Exposed colour of upperside dark brown, between 

 vandyck-brown and seal-brown, this colour conlined to tips of 

 hairs; middle portion of individual hairs light ecru-drab or 

 whitish ecru-drab ; extreme base dark brown. A distinct 

 but not very sharply defined cream -bufFy or nearly whitish 

 stripe on each side of back alonsj membranes. General 

 colour of underside drab tinged with hair-brown, and con- 

 spicuously lightened with greyish white on sides of breast 

 and belly ; concealed bases of hairs nearly everywhere dark 

 brown. — The upperside is not essentially different in colour 

 from (only a little paler than) that of H. oceanitis ; the 

 colour of the underparts is very much lighter. 



Measurements. — Two adult skins and skulls of H. demissus 

 (in parentheses, for comparison, measurements of two adult 

 specimens and skulls of H. oceanitis) : — Forearm 64'5 and 

 68 5 mm. (79 and 79), third metacarpal 50"5 and 50*5 (54-5 

 and 56-5), fourth metacarpal 48-5 and 48-5 (54 and 56), Hfth 

 metacarpal 46 and 46*5 (51 and 52-5), lower leg 25*5 and 

 28*5 (35 and o6). Zygomatic breadth of skull 15-2 and 15"5 

 (17*3 and 175), mandible, condylus to front of incisors 19 

 and 19"5 (21'5 and 21'7), maxillary tooth-row, c-m^ 10'2and 

 10"2 (11*3 and 11*8), lower tooth-row, exclusive of incisors 

 11-5 and 11-7 ('12-9 and 13-1). 



Type. S ^^' (skin and skull); Yanuta, San Christoval, 

 28th April, 1908; collected by A. S. Meek. 



Remarks. — The Solomon Islands are now known to be 

 inhabited by three perfectly distinct forms of the H. diadema 

 type : the very large and long-legged H. dtnops, apparently 

 confined to the New Georgia group ; the small H. oceanitis, 

 from Guadalcanar, which in many respects, even in size, is 

 similar to H. pullatus (New Guinea) , but considerably different 

 in colour ; and the very small, pale-bellied H. demissus^ con- 

 fined to San Christoval. The latter species is at the same 

 time the smallest and the extreme eastern representative of 

 the diadema group. — A similar, or if anything still stronger, 

 splitting of one tj^pe of bat into different species, each confined 

 to one island or group of islands of the Solomon Archipelago, 

 is shown by the Pteropus rayneri group : Pt. cojnatus in San 

 (yhrisfoval, Pt. rayneri in Guadalcanar, Pt. rubianus in the 

 New Georgia group, Pt. lavellanus in Vella Lavella, and 

 Pt. grandis in the Bougainville group (a sixth species, 

 Pt. chrysoproctus, is found in the Moluccas). The Pteropus 

 hypomelanus group is represented in the Solomon Islands by 

 two species, one western [Pt. colonus, Bougainville group) 

 and one central {Pt. solomonis, New Georgia grou[)). And 

 as pointed out above, also Pteralopex is differentiated into 



Ann. (k Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 8. Vol. iii. 19 



