On Six neio Fruit-bats. G41 



LXXV. — Six new Fru't-hats of the Genera Macroglossus 

 and Sycon} cteris. By Knud Andersen. 



I. TIlc Species and Subspecies 0/ Macroglossus. 



All known forms of Macroglossus are referable to two 

 species, M. minimus and M. lagochilus. In the former the 

 nares are directed more outward than forward, and the 

 median vertical groove on the upper lip (the continuation of 

 the internarial groove) is obsolescent or absent ; in the latter 

 the nares are directed half outward, half forward, and the 

 median vertical groove on the upper lip is sharply defined. 

 AJ. minimus ranges from Java eastward to Timor, west and 

 north-westward to Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, Siam, 

 Burma, and Darjeeling. M. lagochilus covers the whole of 

 Austro-Malaya (thus far no record from the Gilolo group) 

 and extends west to the Philippines and Borneo. The 

 two species a[)pear nowhere to occur together. 



The name M. minimus, as hitherto understood, covers two 

 distinct forms. In the one (J7. m. minimus^ the rostrum is, 

 both absolutely and relatively, shorter, being slightly less 

 than one-third of the total length of the ^kull, and all 

 measurements (skull, tooth - rows, external dimensions) 

 average conspicuously smaller ; in the other {M.m. sobrinus, 

 subsp. n.) the rostrum is longer, slightly more than one- 

 third of the skull, and all measurements average larger. 

 The former (niinimus) is, so far, known with certainty only 

 from Java (including Madura) and Kangean Islands, and is 

 probably the truly indigenous Javan race of the species, 

 whereas the latter {sobrinus) may be presumed originally to 

 have been confined to S.E. Asia, whence (as soon as altered 

 physical conditions favoured an extension of its area south- 

 eastward) it has spread to Sumatra and Java ; even now the 

 predominant form in Java seems to be minimus. Since 

 sobrinus (it this hypothesis is correct) has spread south- 

 eastward to Java, it is by no means unlikely that minimus 

 has extended its range westward to Sumatra and, perhaps, 

 to the Malay Peninsula, but as yet there is no conclusive 

 evidence that such is the case. 



A line drawn north-south between the Moluccas and New 

 Guinea divides the area inhabited by M. lagochilus into a 

 western and eastern half. The islands of the western half — 

 viz., Borneo, the Philippines, Sanghir Islands, Celebes, and 

 the Amboina group — are occupied by one race [M. I. lago- 

 chilus) in which tue premolars and molars are not more 

 reduced in breadth than in M. minimus : those of the eastern 



