24fe 

 SCIENTIFIC RESULTS FROM THE MAIVOIAL SURVEY. 



No. XXIII. 

 By 



Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S. 

 {Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



A NEW BAT OF THE GENUS MyOTIS FROM SiKKIM. 



InMr.Wroughton's Report No. 26, on Darjiling Mammals, a note 

 by me is published (Journ. B. N. H. S., xxiv, p. 779, 1916) on two 

 specimens of Myotis sicarius, with a comment that one of them is a 

 good deal smaller than the other, with specially smaller teeth. 



We have now received from the Bombay Society two further speci- 

 mens of this group, male and female, and both of them precisely agree 

 with that smaller, specimen, and as both sexes are represented I can- 

 not but consider that the series includes two species, of which one needs 

 description as new. 



Although the first discovery was made by Mr. Baptista, it is to the 

 two recent specimens that the clearing up of the confusion is due, 

 and as the Society owes them to Mr. C. Primrose, I take the liberty 

 of forming the specific name as follows : — 



Myotis primula, sp. n. 



General characters of Bl. sicarius, but smaller and with smaller 

 teeth. 



Colour and external characters apparently quite as in sicarius. Fur 

 of back about 7 mm. in length. General colour above mummy- 

 brown, the ends of the hairs glossy and rather paler. Undersurface 

 greyish white, the bases of the hairs slaty ; medium ventral area 

 more or less tinged — perhaps stained — with yellowish. 



Skull shaped as in sicarius, but sm^aller ; [compare the skull 

 measurements below with those published by Mr. Wroughton 

 (J. B, N. H. S., Vol. XXIII, p. 608)]. Canines shorter and considerably 

 more slender, their antero-posterior diameter in sicarius 1 • 3mm. in 

 primula 1 ' 0mm. Small premolar even smaller in proportion to the 

 anterior one, quite internal to the tooth row. Below, this difference 

 is accentuated, for the middle lower premolar is in sicarius in the 

 tooth row and of about one-third the area in cross section of the 

 anterior tooth, while in primula the two are as in the upper jaw, 

 the middle one quite internal and only about one-tenth the area of 

 the first. 



