Uttle-knoion Names of Chiropteran Genera. 433 



Of tlie five species included in this genus (see above), Ft. stra- 

 mt'neus, Geoff, (i. e. helvus, Kerr*), as being the earliest 

 known, may be fixed as the type of the genus. Eidolon thus 

 antedates Fterocyon, Peters (18(11), by forty-six years. 



Pteronotus is technically a nomen nudum. As pointed out 

 above, it was undoubtedly by its author intended to be a 

 generic name of Pt. 2^alliatus, E. Geof. [Dohsom'a palliata 

 of modern authors] ; it is also evident why 'Rafinesque 

 did not find it necessary to mention this species by name ; 

 there could in fact be no mistake whatever, since the word 

 Piero- ( = aile) notus (— -dos) was simply a translation of 

 E. Geoffroy's diagnosis of the third section of Pteropus, 

 viz. " [espece] j1 ailes sur le dos,^^ and this section contained 

 only one species. Nevertheless, according to the nowr 

 prevalent purely formal way of dealing with nomenclatural 

 questions, Pteronotus, Raf., as being from the hand of its 

 author without diagnosis and without definite indication 

 of species, has no standing in technical nomenclature, and 

 therefore does not invalidate Pteronotus^ J. E. Gray (1838 ; 

 Phyllostomatidaj), nor does it replace JJobsoida, Palmer 

 (1898). 



(3) The two genera " P/iyllostoma Geof.^' and "Vtunpi/rum 

 R. do. Geof. sans queue,'' correspond precisely to E. Geoffroy's 

 two sections of " Phyllostome [Phyllo stoma),'' viz, " Phyll. 

 avec une queue " {op. cit. p. 181 ; the species Ph. crenulatum, 

 elongatum, hastatumy soricinum) , and " Phyll. sans queue " 

 {op. cit. p. 185; the species Ph. perspicillatumy Hneatum, 

 rotundum, Itlium, spectrum). 



The name Vamp)/rum is technically valid, as being 

 diagnosed by the words " [les especes du genre JPhyllostoma] 

 sans queue." Of the five species for which the name was 

 proposed (see above) Phyllostoma spectrum may be fixed as 

 the tyi)e, on the strength of tlie tautology principle, this 

 species being referred to by E. GeoftVoy under the vernacular 

 name " Le Phyllostome vampire.'' Vampyrum^ Raf. (1815), 

 thus replaces VampyruSj Leach (1821). 



uame for Pt. pnlliatus, but technically a nomen nudum), though, as 

 pointed out by T. S. Palmer (ludex Gen. Mamm. p. 688 ; 15:K)4), Burnett 

 probably based not direct on E. Geoffroy's paper, but on J. K. Gray's 

 account of the genus Pteropus in GriHith's ' Animal Kingdom,' v. pp. 6S- 

 51) (18:27). Also in this case the new generic nami' proposed lor the 

 t^inglo species of the third section, '• Rousettes a ailes sur le dos," viz. 

 TriOonop/mrus, is technically inadmissible, as biised, without diagnosis, 

 on a novieti nudum. 



* \\. Andersen, Ann. & Mag. N. II. (7) xix. p. .")04 (li»07). 



