238 ' DR. KNUD ANDERSEN ON BATS. [Apr. 7, 



(5). — Venezuela: Macuto, La Guaira (3).— S. Mexico: Palenque, 

 Chiapas (2); Papayo, Guerrero (1).— 10 skulls, representing all 

 these localities. 



Eange. — From Central Brazil (Bahia, MattoGrosso) to S. Mexico 

 (Chiapas, Guerrero). As yet no record from Guiana (see^.p. 

 fallax). 



Spix's Phyllostoma planirostre, 1823.— Type locality: "in 

 suburbiis Bahia?." From Spix's description and figure so much 

 only can be decided with certainty that his Ph. jilcf'^irostre is a 

 large species of Artibeus. There being only two large species 

 known, the point to be settled is this : is Spix's type the form 

 called A. jjlanirostris in the present paper (f molars^ or is it 

 A. jamaicensis (f molars). Both of these species occur in the 

 Bahia region.— Three authors, Wagner in 1840, Peters in 1865, 

 and Dohson in 1878, have discussed this question and arrived at 

 difierent conclusions : — 



Wagner's description of ^'■Phyllostoma perspicillatum" (1840, 

 I. s. c.) was based on what he considered Spix's types of Ph. plani- 

 rostre : — " Von seinem Phyllostoma planirostre hat Spix 3 Exem- 

 plare in Weingeist hinterlassen," he writes; and "die nachstehende 

 Beschreibung ist nach den Spix'schen Exemplaren entworfen." 

 The only additional information of importance contained in 

 Wagner's description is this : " Backenzahne finden sich f vor," 

 i. e. Wao-ner found only | molars in the presumed types. — From 

 this it might be inferred that Spix's Ph. planirostre is Leach's 

 A . jamaicensis. 



Peters writes (1865, 1, s. c.) : " Nach Untersuchung des einzigen 

 Originalexemplars in Weingeist [von Ph. jjlanirostre] kann ich 

 nur die Uebereinstimmung desselben mit Ph. perspicillatum 

 Geoffroy bestiitigen," and found the specimen which he considered 

 the type to have | molars.— From this, again, it would seem that 

 Ph. planirostre Spix (1823) is a synonym of A . jamaicensis Leach 

 (1821), this latter being the only large species of the genus with 

 3 molars. There is, it will be noticed, a discrepancy between 

 Wagner and Peters with regard to the number of typical speci- 

 mens ; according to Wagner there are three, according to Peters 



one only. 



Dobson (1878, I. s. c), though he had no opportunity of ex- 

 amining the type (or types) of Ph. planirostre, rejected Peters's 

 identification on account of the following words in Spix's original 

 description : " vexillum nasale .... inferius lateraliter et antice 

 libere pendens " ; he regarded this statement of Spix, that the 

 horseshoe is " free " in front, as decisive evidence that Ph. plani- 

 rostre is the large species with | molars, not the large species 

 with I molars ; and the difliculty that, according to Peters, the 

 type of planirostre has | molars only, he overcame by arguing 

 that the type might be immature, or very old, or in this respect 

 abnormal. — But the fact is, it must be said at once, that the con- 

 dition of the front margin of the horseshoe is thoroughly unreliable 



