538 I'HTLLOSTOMIDJK. 



29. STUENIRA. 



Sturnira, Gray, Ann. Sf Mag. Nat. Hist. x. p. 257 (1842). 

 Nyctiplanus, Gray, P. Z. S. 1848, p. 67. 



Muzzle short and conical ; nose-leaf and ears as in Artiheus ; chin 

 with three warts in front, margined below by smaller warts in a 

 semicircular series ; taU none ; calcaneum indistinct ; interfemoral 

 membrane very narrow ; wing-membrane extending to the ankles. 



Dentition. Inc. ^, c. t^, pm. 535, m. 3^, 



Upper middle uieisors unicuspidate, oblique ; molars rather 

 narrow and longitudinally grooved, their longitudinal equalling 

 their transverse diameters ; last molar in both jaws small. 



This genus differs from all the genera of Stenodermata in its 

 longitudinally grooved molars, and resembles Brachyphylla alone 

 in the conical shape of the muzzle. 



The molars resemble those of the frugivorous Pteropi more closely 

 than those of any other Bats ; and the only known species, S. lilium, 

 no doubt lives chiefly if not altogether on fruit, though Tschudi 

 (' Pauna Peruana'), while describing its frugivorous habits, remarks 

 that a specimen was caught in the act of sucking the face of a 

 drunken Indian sleeping under a plantain tree. It is very probable, 

 however, that the truly sanguivorous Desmodus rufus, which this 

 species resembles closely in the colour of the fur and in general 

 external form, was mistaken for it. 



In the presence of tufts of longer and differently coloured hairs 

 over glands on the sides of the neck in the males ot S. lilium (Fh. 

 erythromos, Tschudi, and'P/i. chrysocomos, Wagner), another point 

 of resemblance to the frugivorous Pteropi may be observed, which is 

 even more remarkable than the form of the teeth, as the latter is 

 evidently the result of adaptative changes. 



1. Sturnira lilium. 



Phyllostoma lilium, Geq^roy, Ann. dti Mus. xv. p. 181 ; Wayne?; 



Suppl. Schreh. Sdugeth. 1. p. 411, v. p. 631. 

 Phyllostoma spiculatus, Illigei; Lichtenst. Verz. der Douhl. p. 3. 

 Sturnira spectrum, Gray, Ann. ^ Mag. Nat. Hist. 1842, p. 267 ; 



Voyage ' Sulphvr,' Mammal, p. 22, pi. vi. fig. 1 (1844). 

 Phyllostoma excisum, Wagner, Wiegm. Archiv, 1842, p. 358. 

 Phyllostoma albescens et fumarium, Wagner, Ahhand. Miitich. Akad. 



V. p. 178 (vide Peters, MB. Akad. Berl. 1865, p. 524). 

 Phyllostoma erythromos et oporaphilum, Tschudi, Fauna Peruana, 



p. 64, pis. i. & ii. (1844-46). 

 Stenoderma chilense, Gervais, Gay, Hist, de Chili, Mammal, p. 30, 



pi. i. fig. 1 (1847). 

 Nyctiplanus rotundatus, Gray, P. Z. S. 1848, p. 57. 

 Phvllostoma chrysocomos, Wagner, Suppl. Schreb. Sdugeth. v. p. 635 



(1855). 

 Sturnira lilium et chilensis, Gervais, Exped. du Comte de Castelnau, 



Zoologie, p. 39, pi. viii. fig. 5, and pi. ix. figw. 5 & 6 (1855) ; 



Peters, I. c. 



