1. EP0M0PH0ETJ8. 5 



The Bats of this genus are easily distinguished bj' their remark- 

 ably large and long head, ver}' expansible lips, and by the invariable 

 white tuft of hair which adorns the margins of the ears in front 

 and behind in both males and females of every known species. The 

 males are larger than the females, and have longer and narrower 

 heads, and in most species are provided with peculiar glandular 

 pouches, which are situated in the integument of the side of the 

 neck near the point of the shoulder. These pouches are rudimentary 

 or quite absent in females. In the males they are lined with a 

 glandular membrane, from which long coarse yellowis]i-white hairs 

 arise, which project by their extremities from the mouth of the sac, 

 and, when the pouches are everted, form conspicuous epaulet-like 

 tufts on the shoulders. In the single species, E. monstrosus^ in which 

 these shoulder-pouches are not developed, the males are distinguished 

 by most peculiar foliaceous processes of the integument of the front 

 of the muzzle, of which nidiments only occur in the females (see 

 Plate I. figs, la & 2). 



The fur is very similar in all the species, being rather short and 

 of a peculiar light yellowish or cinnamon-brown colour with a 

 greyish tinge ; the abdomen in many species with a large oval patch of 

 whitish hairs, and in every species, even in the aberrant and very 

 peculiar E. monstrosus, the bases of the outer and inner margins of 

 the ear are adorned with tufts of white hairs. 



The Epomoxjhori live on figs, and probably on other soft fruits, 

 the juicy .contents of which their voluminous Ups and capacious 

 mouths enable them to retain and swallow without loss while the 

 process of mastication is going on. 



The different species agree so closely together in external form 

 and in the colour of the fur that it is extremely difficult to distinguish 

 them by characters derived from an examination of their external 

 structure. Fortimately we have, in the form and arrangement of 

 the palate-ridges, very rehable characters by which specimens pre- 

 served in alcohol may be at once determined, and these characters 

 are set forth in the synoptical Table at p. 7, and illustrated by the 

 figures on Plate II. In the case of dried skins the discrimination 

 of the species is attended -s^'ith considerable difficulty ; but the form 

 of the ears, the presence or absence of the tail, and especially the 

 measurements of the bones of the extremities afford the most reliable 

 characters. E. lahiatus has been described from dried skins, and the 

 only specimens known are skins also. Jt is therefore uncertain 

 whether it is a distinct species or a small variety only of some of 

 the larger species of the genus. 



Sijnopsis of Subgenera. 



)t developed in either 



^„x^„ «- , I'oit of the muzzle with 



prominent cutaneous foliaceous expnnsicns ; 



molars with distinct external cusps llYPPiaNATiirs, 



I. Shoulder-pouches not developed in either 

 males or females ; fi-ont of the muzzle with 



P- 



