THE FAMILIES AND GENERA OF BATS. 67 



tinued backward usually passing through audital bulla and occipital 

 condyle. Audital bullae about as in Gynopterus, much better de- 

 veloped than in Pteropus. Mandible slender and weak, its depth 

 between pm a and pm± scarcely greater than length of pm s ; coronoid 

 low and very gradually sloping. In its external characters the genus 

 differs from Pteropus chiefly in the very large full lips and the pres- 

 ence of a distinct, though very rudimentary tail consisting of two 

 vertebrae and readily detected by touch. Males usually with con- 

 spicuous glandular mass and tuft of modified hairs on shoulder. 



Species examined. — Epomophorus comptus H. Allen, E. crypturus 

 Peters, E. dobsonii Bocage, E. franqueti Tomes, E. gambianus Jen- 

 tink, E. labiatus (Temminck), E. macrocephalus (Ogilby), E. minor 

 Dobson, E. neumanni Matschie, E. pusillus Peters, E. wahlbergi Sun- 

 devall; also several undetermined forms. 



Genus HYPSIGNATHUS H. Allen. 



1861. Hypsignatlius H. Allen, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, p. 156. 



(monstrosus.) 



1862. Sphyrocephalus Murray, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1862, p. 8. (labro- 



sus=monstrosus. ) 

 1862. Zygmnocephalus Murray, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, pi. i (misprint). 

 1878. Hypsignathus Dobson, Catal. Chiropt. Brit. Mus., p. 6 (subgenus). 

 1899. Hypsignathus Matschie, Flederm. des Berliner Mus. fur Naturk., p. 



42 (subgenus). 



Type-species. — Hypsignathus monstrosus H. Allen. 



Geographic distribution. — Western and central Africa from Gam- 

 bia to the Uelle region and French Kongo. 



Number of forms. — The type species only. 



Characters. — Like Epomophorus, but with lips much more devel- 

 oped, the upper lip thrown into conspicuous folds anteriorly and 

 about nostrils; beneath upper lip the mouth communicates with a 

 paired sac extending from extremity of muzzle to halfway between 

 eyes and ears. No shoulder glands. Tail reduced to a tubercle 

 quite hidden beneath the skin and barely perceptible to the touch. 

 Skull like that of Epomophorus, but with dorsal and ventral profiles 

 nearly parallel, the depth of rostrum in males greater at diastema 

 than in lachrymal region. Teeth as in Epomophorus, but incisors 

 more widely spaced, lower incisors very obscurely or not bilobed, 

 canines even more reduced in size, small lower premolar barely pier- 

 cing gum, pm *, to 1 , pm 4 , m i , and m 2 , with inner ridge much more 

 developed than in Epomophorus and median furrow correspondingly 

 deepened, outer ridge of lower molars divided into two distinct 

 blunt cusps. 



Species examined. — Hypsignathus monstrosus H. Allen. 



Remarks. — The peculiarities of Hypsignathus monstrosus', espe- 

 cially those of the teeth, are too great to allow the animal to be placed 

 in the genus Epomophorus, 



