514 PHYLLOSTOMID.E. 



23. ARTIBEUS. 



Ai-tibeus, Leach, Linn. Tram. xiii. p. 75 (1822) j, Peters, MB. Akad. 



Berl. 1865, p. 356. 

 Madatseus, Leach, I. c. p. 81. 



Arctibeus, Gray, Mag. Zool. 8,- Bot. ii. p. 487 (1839). 

 Pteroderma, Gervais, Exped. du Comte de CasteJnau, Zoologie., p. 34 



(1855). 

 Platjrrhinus, Samstire (in part), Bev. et Mag. Zool. 1860, p. 429. 



Muzzle very short, broad in front ; general form of the ears, nose- 

 leaf, and tragus as in Phyllostoma, the posterior erect leaf with a 

 very prominent longitudinal ridge ; eyes large ; head slightly raised 

 above the face-line ; lovrer lip with a central wart in front and a 

 smaller one on either side, the whole margined laterally and beneath 

 by a row of much smaller warts ; inner margin of the lips fringed 

 Avith small conical papillae ; wing-membrane extending to the feet ; 

 tail none ; interfemoral membrane emarginate behind ; calcaneum 

 short, distinct. 



Dentition. Inc. ^, c. ^, pm. |^, m. ?=|, or |=|, or |=|. 



Upper middle incisors moderate, each with a single broad verti- 

 cally directed cusp, notched on its cutting-edge ; outer incisors very 

 small, with oblique cusps ; molars very broad, with concave crowns 

 and small marginal cusps externally and internally, the third molar 

 in both jaws very small or absent ; bony palate produced backwards 

 as far as a line corresponding to the middle of the zygomatic arches. 



Range. Tropical parts of the Neotropical Region. 



Representatives of this genus are found throughout the Neotro- 

 pical Region wherever tree-fruit is abundant, of which their food 

 ])rincipally, if not altogether, consists. On the floors of caves in 

 Jamaica inhabited by A. perspkillatus Mr. Osbum found fragments 

 of bread-nut (Brosimum), of red berries (Oordia collococea), of the 

 rose-apple (Eugenia jambos), and of unripe mangoes. 



As might be supposed from the large size and nakedness of the 

 eyes in the species of this genus, they are rather crepuscular than 

 nocturnal in their habits, and often choose for their habitations 

 places considerably exposed to daylight. Mr. Osburn has noticed 

 that A. persplcUlatus particularly haunts the entrance of caves or 

 caves of small depth ; and he found them in great numbers in Aquatta 

 Vale, Jamaica, clustering under the fronds of the cocoa-nut palm. 

 The writer, also, found a colony of the closely-allied species, A.plani- 

 rostris, roosting under the slightly projecting eaves of a house in 

 Demerara, where they were exposed to the full glare of the setting 

 sun. 



The species of Artiheus have been divided into three subgenera, 

 according to the presence or absence of the minute last upper or 

 lower molars ; but, as I find that the presence of these small last 

 molars, certainly of the last upper molars, is variable even in the 

 same species, it is evident that this character can scarcely be con- 

 sidered of much importance. 



