186 



BULLETIN 51, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Characters. — Differs externally from its allies in the much shorter 

 leg, proportionally about as long as in the small species of Myotis, 

 and in the nearly unmodified ear, the anterior border of which arises 

 directly above eye, the posterior border behind base of tragus, so that 

 the peculiar funnel-like form characteristic of the other genera is 

 scarcely indicated. Skull (fig. 28) differing from that of the allied 

 genera in the low braincase and very large rostrum, the length of 

 which, as in Ohilonatalus, is fully equal to that of braincase, the 

 breadth of palate including third molars equal to that above posterior 

 roots of zygomata. Maxillaries swollen, but much less than in Pho- 

 dotes, not enough to conceal molars when skull is viewed from above. 

 Teeth not essentially different from those of Natal its, but canine and 



anterior premolar both above and below 

 greatly reduced in size, the canine scarcely 

 higher than its corresponding large premolar, 

 and the first upper premolar scarcely as large 

 as outer' incisor. Lower premolars much less 

 trenchant than in Natalus, the shafts almost 

 terete, though retaining distinct traces of the 

 cutting edges; pm , much reduced in size, 

 its height scarcely half that of pm „. 



Species examined. — Nyctiellus lepidus 

 (Gervais). 



Remarks. — As compared with other mem- 

 bers of its subfamily, Nyctiellus is distinctly 

 less specialized externally ; but in the peculiar 

 form of the skull and in the reduced size of 

 the anterior, canine and premolar it repre- 

 sents a more advanced stage than any of the 

 related genera, both of these characters suggesting the members of 

 the next family. 



Family FURIPTERID^E. 



1831. Vespertilion.es (.Vespertilionidw) (part; Tespertilionina. part) Bona- 

 parte, Saggio di una distrib. metodica degli Anim. Vert., p. 15. 



1855. [ Vespertilionida;] " Vespertilionides " (part; Embatlonurina, part) 

 Gervais, Exped. du Compte de Castelnau, Zool., Mamm., p. 52. 



1865. Bracliyura (part) Peters, Monatsber, k. preuss. Akad. Wissensch., 

 Berlin, p. 257. 



18fl<;. Furipterina Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 3d ser., XVII, p. 91. 

 February, 1866. 



1872. Noctilionidw (part; Furilnw) Gill, Arrangement of the Families of 

 Mammals, p. 18. 



1875. Emballonnridtr (part; Emhallonunr, part) Dobson, Ann. and Mag. 

 Nat. Hist., 4th ser., XVI, p. 349, November, 1875. 



1878. Fniballontiridw (part; Fa rice) Dobson, Catal. Chiropt. Brit Mus 

 p. 354. 



Fig. 28.— Nyctiellus lepidus. 

 Adult female. Isle of Pines, 

 Cuba. No. 103898. x2J- 



