650 CHIROPTERA 
The order is divided by Dobson into the suborders Mega- 
chiroptera and Microchiroptera. 
Suborder MEGACHIROPTERA. 
Frugivorous Bats, generally of large size. Crowns of molars 
smooth, marked with a longitudinal groove (cuspidate in Pteral- 
opex); bony palate continued behind the last molar, narrowing 
slowly backwards ; three phalanges in the index finger, the third 
phalanx generally terminated by a claw; sides of the ear-conch 
forming a complete ring at the base; tail, when present, inferior 
to (not contained in) the interfemoral membrane ; pyloric extremity 
of the stomach generally much elongated; the Spigelian lobe of 
the liver ill-defined or absent, and the caudate well developed. 
Limited to the tropical and subtropical parts of the eastern 
hemisphere. 
Mr. O. Thomas! considers that the ordinary type of molar 
dentition found in this suborder is a specialised adaptation from 
the cuspidate type of the Microchiroptera; the genus Pteralopex 
retaining the ancestral form of teeth. 
Family PTEROPODIDE. 
Since all the forms are included in this family its characters 
may be taken to be the same as those of the suborder. 
Subfamily Pteropodine.—Toneue moderate; molars well de- 
veloped. 
Epomophorus.-—Dentition ; iS c 4, p 3, mi; total 28 or 
26. Tail absent or very short, when present free from inter- 
femoral membrane; second digit of manus clawed; premaxille 
united. This genus includes some seven species inhabiting Africa 
south of the Sahara. The head is large and long, and the lips are 
expansible, and frequently with peculiar folds. The ears have a 
white tuft of hair on the margin ; and in the males of most species 
there are large glandular pouches in the skin of the side of the 
neck near the shoulder, from the mouth of which project long and 
coarse yellowish hairs, forming tufts on the shoulders, from which 
the genus takes its name. Another male secondary sexual 
character consists in the présence of a pair of large air-sacs 
extending outwards on each side from the pharynx beneath the 
integument of the neck, in the position shown in Fig. 299. These 
sacs are evidently capable of being greatly distended at the will of 
the animal, and their inflation probably occurs under the same 
1 Proc, Zool. Soc. 1888, p. 473. 
* Bennett, Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. ii. p. 38 (1835). 
