116 MR. K, ANDERSEN ON BATS [May 16, 
Distribution. From Transcaspia and the Euphrates Valley 
through Southern and Central Europe, exclusive of the Spanish 
Peninsula. 
14/. RHINOLOPHUS FERRUM-EQUINUM OBSCURUS Cabrera. 
Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum obscurus Cabrera Latorre, Mem. 
Soe. Espafi. Hist. Nat. ii. (1904) p. 257. 
Diagnosis. Smaller than the typical form. 
Detwils.—(1) Compared with the typical form: see above, p. 114. 
(2) Compared with the Eastern races : the small size, combined 
with the narrow horse-shoe, make it readily distinguishable. The 
skull is apparently slightly smaller than in nppon. 
Dentition (4 skulls). As in the typical form. 
Distribution. Spanish Peninsula, with the Balearic Islands. 
Algeria *. 
General Remarks on the Rhinolophus simplex Group. 
The place of origin.—Of all the existing forms, the Australian 
Rh. megaphyllus is one of the most primitive in dentition. But 
it is very unlikely that the Australian Continent has been the 
place of origin of the group. Rh. megaphyllus is the only 
Australian species of the whole genus; this might suggest 
the assumption that it is an immigrant into the country, 
vather than an ancient inhabitant: secondly, Australia is the 
extreme eastern border for the group (as well as for the genus), 
no species being known from the islands to the east of the 
Continent; it would probably not be so, if Australia had been 
a centre of dispersal for the group: thirdly, megaphyllus has at 
least two characters which certainly are not primitive—the large 
nose-leaves, and (probably as a consequence of that) the rather 
broad nasal swellings: fourthly, megaphyllus looks extremely like 
an enlarged, continental representative of the Lombok species, 
Rh. simplex (just as Rh. rouwi is the larger, continental repre- 
sentative of Ah. borneensis). These arguments seem to support 
the conjecture that, not the Australian Continent, but the “ Indo- 
Australian Transitional Tract,” now broken up into numerous 
larger and smaller islands, and still inhabited by such. very primi- 
tive forms as simplex, truncatus, nanus, celebensis, and borneensis, 
has been the centre from which the group spread eastwards and 
westwards. 
Differentiation t.—The ancestral species seems to have divided 
into two branches, an eastern and a western. In the eastern, 
more primitive branch the sagittal crest does not reach quite so 
far forwards as a point corresponding to the middle of the orbit ; 
in the western the temporal fossa is comparatively a little wider, 
and the sagittal crest produced forwards more or less beyond that 
* The type of Rh. f. cbscwrus, in the Madrid Museum, is from Valencia, Spain. 
As will be seen, I take the name:in a wider sense. Valencia specimens were 
separated by Prof. Cabrera, as a distinct subspecies, mainly on account of a difference 
in the ratio between the length and breadth of the horse-shoe. In a large series of 
ferrum-equinum from Europe and W. Asia there is, however, no small, and quite 
ndividual, variation in this respect. + Compare the diagram on p. 120. 
