1905.] OF THE GEJ^US RHINOLOPHUS. 121 



II. The Rhinolophus lepidus Group. 



Diagnosis. Basioccipital, between cochlea?, not unusually 

 naiTowed. Posterior connecting process projecting and pointed. 



I include in this group : — (1) All the forms with projecting 

 connecting process compi-ised by Dobson under the technical name 

 " Eh. minor " ; their close relationship is unquestionable ; their 

 differences Avill be pointed out below ; (2) Rh. acuminatus and its 

 allies, which are scarcely more than giant forms of the le2ndus- 

 type ; (3) the Rh. hlasii and (4) Rh. euryale sections, peculiarly 

 modified Ethiopian and W. Palceai-ctic representatives of the 

 sicbbadinS'tYpe. The two former sections only will be reviewed 

 below ; the two latter will be briefly mentioned in the " General 

 Remarks" on the group (p. 135). 



Text-fi^. 22. 



Side views of nose-leaves, showing the principal forms of the connecting process 

 in the BIi. simplex group (a) and the B/;. lepidus group (h, c, d). 



a. S,h. horneensis typicus; h. Hh. cornutus pumilus ; 

 c. Bh. monoceros ; d. Rh. empusa. 



As this is a first attempt to disentangle the many different 

 forms hitherto confounded with Horsfield's Rh. minor, the 

 following preliminary remarks are necessary, as a general 

 guidance : — 



The first of the above-named sections (the " lejndus-^Qatioyx "), 

 viz., all the small Oriental and E. Palfearctic Rhinolophi which 

 have the connecting process projecting and pointed, fall into three 



show, at a glance, the probable interrelations of the species. As sufficiently emphasised 

 in the foregoing pages, I am far from being of opinion \\\a)i ferrum-eqidnum is derived 

 from the now-existing affinis (or capensis from rouxi, or stheno from horneensis, &c.). 

 But ferrum-eqtdnuni has originated from a Bat which had the more essential 

 characters of affinis (besides several others, unknown to vxs). The technical names 

 in the diagram are, in other words, to be taken, not in their strict specific sense, but 

 as names of the sections (" types," " branches ") of which the species, as we now see 

 them, are the surviving representatives. 



