(187) 



NEW OR LITTLE-KNOWN HATS 



5. Rhiuolopliu^ aleyone, Temm. 

 (PI. Ill figs. 8-14.) 



1853. Rhinolophus aleyone, Temminck, Esquisses Zoologiques sur la cdto 

 de Guinee, p. 80. (Type locality: Rio Boutry, Gold Coast.) 



cT ad.; preserved in alcohol. Victoria, Cameroons. Collected by Signor 

 Leonardo Fea, 1902. Museo Civico, Genoa. 



Since 1853 the type of Rh. aleyone, in the collection of the 

 Leiden Museum (*), has remained unique, and the original de- 

 scription (which probably was intended to be preliminary only) 

 being very vague and fragmentary nobody has been able to 

 identify the species with any degree of certainty. Prof. Peters ( 2 ) 

 regarded it as « kaum von Rli. ferrum-equinum verschieden » ; 

 he may have seen the type during one of his visits to Leiden , 

 but, if so, he cannot have examined the skull and dentition. 

 Dobson, in Ins « Catalogue », has no reference to Rh. aleyone. 



An examination of the bat collected by Sr. L. Fea at Victoria, 

 Cameroons, and sent for identification by Marquis Doria convinced 

 me that it was a species unknown to me , but there was still 

 the possibility that it might be Temminck's Rh. aleyone. To 

 decide this question I had to apply for the assistance of Dr. Jen- 

 tink, who with customary kindness favoured me with a series of 

 cranial and external measurements of the type of Rh. aleyone ( 3 ) 

 and details about its dentition. This valuable information lias 

 proved my conjecture to be correct; the Cameroon bat is a second 

 specimen of the hitherto mysterious Rh. aleyone. 



The following is a detailed description of Rh. aleyone, based 

 on the Genoa Museum example: — 



Horse-shoe broad, but not completely covering the upper lip 

 laterally; a minute tooth-like projection on either side of the 

 median notch. Supplementary leaflet present, but firmly connected 

 with the upper lip. Sella slightly pandttrale; front face densely 

 covered with extremely short white hairs (not easily observable 

 by the naked eye). Posterior connecting-process of the Rh. minor 

 type, i. e. 'projecting, like a small acute triangle, beyond the 



(!) Jentikk, « Catalogue osteologique des Mamnii feres », Mus. cl'uist. nat. Pays- 

 Bas, IX. j>. 271; Leiden, 1887. — Id , « Catalogue systematise des Mammiferes », Mus. 

 d'Hist. nat. Pays-Bas, XII. p. 164; Leiden, 1888. 



( 2 ) Peters, MB. Akad. Berlin, 1871, p. 311. 



( 3 ) These measurements, for which I have much pleasure in returning my sincere 

 thanks to Dr. Jentink, are printed in the table below, p. 190. 



