226 
Records of the Australian Museum (2014) Vol. 66 
147 148 149 150 151 
Figure 1. Map indicating localities in the Central Province, Papua New Guinea, mentioned in the text: (1) Kapa Kapa; (2) Kamali; (3) 
Abau; (4) Bonoabo and (5) Oio village. Bam village (not shown) is c. 2 km north of Oio. 
1888 is the most widely distributed and smallest species, 
differentiated by its relatively small ears which, unlike 
other Papua New Guinean species of the genus, are not 
joined above the forehead by a skin membrane (Bonaccorso, 
1998). The Northern Long-eared Bat N. bifax Thomas, 
1915 resembles a smaller version of N. shirleyi in external 
appearance (Parnaby, 2009). It has an extensive Australian 
distribution but is known from few records from Papua New 
Guinea (Bonaccorso, 1998). The Small-toothed Nyctophilus 
N. microdon Laurie and Hill, 1954 is endemic to Papua New 
Guinea (Bonaccorso, 1998). It is distinguished from other 
Papua New Guinean Nyctophilus by its relatively large ears 
and tragus and in both of these features it resembles Pharotis 
imogene (Parnaby, 2009). 
Thomas (1914) proposed the new genus and species 
Pharotis imogene based on a small number of specimens 
in the Natural History Museum, London, collected by L. 
Loria from the coastal village of Kamali, Central Province, 
in November, 1890. These were part of a larger original 
series in the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Genova, 
Italy consisting of 45 specimens from Kamali, and one 
specimen from Kapa Kapa, initially identified as Nyctophilus 
timoriensis by Thomas (1897). However, Kamali remained 
the only authenticated location of Pharotis imogene because 
the identity of the Kapa Kapa specimen was not confirmed as 
being Pharotis imogene by Thomas (1914) and the specimen 
has not been located in world collections (Flannery, 1995). 
There have been no further reports of the New Guinea 
Big-eared Bat since those originally collected in 1890 
and the species was thought to be extinct (Flannery, 
1995; Bonaccorso et al. , 2008). A specimen from Rogut 
village, Central Province, Papua New Guinea, thought to 
be Pharotis imogene and reported by Bonaccorso (1998) 
was examined by one of us (HP) in 1988 and identified as 
Nyctophilus microdon , as noted by Bonaccorso etal. (2008). 
The species is known from very few specimens in world 
collections and all have originated from Museo Civico di 
Storia Naturale, Genova, Italy where Loria’s specimens were 
originally housed. Flannery (1995) located six specimens 
in world collections: three in the Natural History Museum, 
London, and one each in the Australian Museum, Sydney, 
the American Museum of Natural History, New York (see 
Koopman, 1982), and the Zoologisk Museum, Copenhagen. 
Flannery (1995) reported that all known specimens were 
adult females, and could all have been obtained from a single 
roost, which he suspected was a maternity colony. 
Broken-Brow and Hughes (2012) captured a bat thought 
to be either the Small-toothed Nyctophilus Nyctophilus 
microdon or Pharotis sp. in the Abau district, 200 km 
south east of Port Moresby (Fig. 1). Realizing the potential 
significance of the find, they lodged the specimen in the 
National Museum & Art Gallery, Port Moresby. In March, 
2014, the specimen was loaned to the Australian Museum, 
Sydney where comparative material enabled confirmation 
of the specimen as Pharotis imogene —the first record of 
the species since 1890. We discuss the implications of the 
rediscovery of this species with recommendations for further 
investigations into its conservation status. 
