OTONTCTERIS. 
117 
OTONYCTERIS. 
Otonycteris, Peters, MB. Akad. Berl. 1859, p. 223. 
Forehead not raised above the level of the face. Ears very large, directed nearly 
horizontally, united across the forehead by a well-developed fold of skin as in Plecotus. 
The external border of the ear terminates some distance behind the mouth and there is 
a well-developed inwardly folded somewhat fleshy lobe opposite to the point of the base 
of the tragus and opposable to it. No nodule near the base of the inner border of the 
ear at the point of attachment of the fold of skin connecting the ears. Tragus very 
large, directed upwards and outwards, with a minute angular lobule at the base 
of the external margin. Nostrils simple, crescentic, on the side of the snout. Two 
shallow rather indistinct furrows on the upper surface of the snout from behind its 
base, surrounding a somewhat hourglass-shaped raised interspace more or less well 
haired, each furrow continued backwards and outwards towards the upper aspect of the 
inner canthus of each eye. Antibrachial membrane shallow, continuous from the 
shoulder to the base of the first digit of the manus. Wing-membrane arises from 
the side of the metatarsal of the first toe as in Plecotus. A small calcaneal lobe 
halfway between the heel and the tail. Penis with two well-marked lobes, the 
glans projected forward between the lobes, and furnished with a bone ; the middle of 
the dorsum of the penis with a large supplementary haired process. Two pairs of 
teats on the pectoral area. 
Pentition : i. g, c. p pm. m. | = 30. 
The lower incisors are bifid, the inner chisel-like division of the crown of the teeth 
being the larger and longer of its two sections. The upper incisors have a strong 
external basal tubercle or cusp. The canines are short and strong. In form the skull 
(see PI. XVIII. figs. I^ & Ic) is more or less musteline, the muzzle being short and 
broad, and closely similar in all its characters to the skull of Pipisti'ellus. 
In Blanford’s definition of this genus ^ it is said, “ ears large, separate,” but in a 
footnote it is added, “ according to llobson there is hidden amongst the hairs of the 
forehead a very low band that connects the ears, but practically they are separated.” 
In dried skins all trace of the connecting fold of skin disappears, but it is clearly 
preserved in alcoholic specimens, so theie is no doubt it was upon specimens in the 
former condition that Dr. Blanford founded his remarks. 
The three females from Siwah in alcohol, one female skin from Gilgit obtained by 
Colonel J. Biddulph in July 1876, and another specimen from Fao in the Persian 
^ Fauna of Brit. Ind., Mamm. p. 299. 
