42 MR. C. BOUKN KLOSS OX 



Now C angidatus Miller, does have long ears, for the measure- 

 ments of the type series are given as 18-21 mm.* The type- 

 locality is Trang, S. Peninsular Siam or, to put it another way, 

 Central Malay Peninsula. Recently Messrs. H. 0. Robinson 

 and E. Seimuncl obtained a series of bats from Bandon (about 

 100 miles to the north of this) and the adjacent islands of Koh 

 Samui and Koh Pennan, with ears which they found to range 

 between 18*5 -21 mm.t, while I, again, consider my Koh Chang 

 specimens to have ears of 18*5-21 mm. It is impossible to 

 ignore the evidence of so many independent observers, which 

 goes to prove that a bat with the long ears of Dr. Andersen's 

 sphinx really does occur in this region. 



The question then arises as to what is the angidatus of 

 Andersen, based on a large mass of heterogeneous material from 

 an extensive region, ranging from Assam and Annam to Sumatra 

 and the islands oJS' its western coast. Though it includes six of 

 Miller's type series, three of which have the ear-length recorded 

 as above, our author does not seem to have taken this statement 

 into consideration. 



Now Dr. Andersen recorded C. brachyotis hrachyotis as also 

 occurring throughout Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula as far 

 north as Trang (and now in the islands of S.E. Siam), so that if 

 angidatus is to be accepted as a form of hrachyotis, as he desires, 

 we have an instance of two subspecies of the same species living 

 side by side ; or, in other words, two geographical races or local 

 forms occurring in the same place — a thing which most zoologists 

 will flatly refuse to admit : they must either be the same thing 

 or forms of two species. 



Again, if on account of the long ears (which I think must be 

 accepted as occurring in the Malay Peninsula and islands of Siam 

 at any rate) we regard angidatus as a form of sphin.v, we should 

 have, if the long-eared angidatus occurs there too, a similar 

 questionable state of affairs existing in Sumatra, which is in- 

 habited by titthcecheilus, also, according to Andersen, a form of 

 sphinx. So we are left with three alternatives : either angidatus 

 has no real existence, the material forming it being part sphinx 

 and part hrachyotis— wot very probable ; or it is a very plastic 

 and compi-ehensive form of the latter, of which the typical race 

 is non-existent in Sumatra and the mainland ; or it is an in- 

 dependent species. In the last case its central position is good 

 reason for the possession of characters appertaining to both the 

 other species :■ — long ears of sphinx, short rostrum of hrachyotis, 

 and medium size. And to explain the occui'i-ence of all species in 

 one locality to-day we may imagine sphinx extending eastward 

 from Ceylon, angidatus southward from Indo- China, and hrachy- 

 otis westward from, for present purposes — say, Borneo : all con- 

 verging on Sumatra — probably the home of the other section 

 of the genus Niadius. Or conversely, all species of Cynopterus 



* Miller, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Pliiladelpliia, 1898, p. 316. 



t Robinson & Kloss, Journ. F. M. S. Museums, vol. v. pp. 115, 134 (1915). 



