© The Authors, 2014. Journal compilation © Australian Museum, Sydney, 2014 
Records of the Australian Museum (2014) Vol. 66, issue number 4, pp. 225-232. 
ISSN 0067-1975 (print), ISSN 2201-4349 (online) 
http://dx.doi.org/! 0.3853/j .2201 -4349.66.2014.1632 
Rediscovery of the New Guinea Big-eared Bat 
Pharotis imogene from Central Province, 
Papua New Guinea 
Catherine Hughes 1 *, Julie Broken-Brow 1 , Harry Parnaby 2 , 
Steve Hamilton 3 , and Luke K.-P. Leung 1 
1 School of Agriculture & Food Sciences, University of Queensland, Gatton Queensland 4343, Australia 
2 Australian Museum, 6 College Street, Sydney New South Wales 2010, Australia 
3 PO Box 22, Dodges Ferry Tasmania 7173, Australia 
catherine.hughes@uqconnect.edu.au 
Abstract. The New Guinea Big-eared Bat Pharotis imogene has not been reported since the first and 
only specimens were collected in 1890 and the species was presumed extinct. We document the capture 
of one individual of the species from the coastal district of Abau, in Central Province, Papua New Guinea, 
120 km east of the only previous known locality at Kamali. We recommend that field surveys be urgently 
undertaken to assess the conservation status of the species. 
Keywords: Pharotis\ Chiroptera; Vespertilionidae; bat conservation; endemic species; New Guinea 
Hughes, Catherine, Julie Broken-Brow, Harry Parnaby, Steve Hamilton, and Luke K.-P. Leung. 2014. 
Rediscovery of the New Guinea Big-eared Rat Pharotis imogene from Central Province, Papua New Guinea. Records 
of the Australian Museum 66(4): 225-232, http://dx.doi.Org/10.3853/j.2201-4349.66.2014.1632 
The diverse bat fauna of Papua New Guinea includes ten 
genera and 34 species of pteropids (“fruit bats”, Pteropidae) 
and an assemblage of 25 genera and 57 echolocating species 
(Bonaccorso, 1998). Of these 35 bat genera, the endemic, 
monotypic genus Pharotis is one of the most poorly known. 
The New Guinea Big-eared Bat Pharotis imogene Thomas, 
1914 and the long-eared bats (also called big-eared bats) 
of the genus Nyctophilns , are distinguished from all other 
Papua New Guinea genera of the family Vespertilionidae 
by a combination of large ears and a simple nose-leaf 
immediately posterior to the nostrils (Bonaccorso, 1998). 
The phylogenetic relationships of Pharotis md Nyctophilus 
to each other and to remaining genera of Vespertilionidae 
remains unclear. Both genera have been placed either in 
their own subfamily Nyctophilinae (e.g., by Hill & Harrison, 
1987) or in the subfamily Vespertilioninae, sometimes as a 
distinct tribe nyctophilini or in the tribe vespertilionini (see 
Roehrs et al, 2010). 
The largest of the four species of Nyctophilus known from 
Papua New Guinea is distinguished by body size (Flannery, 
1995). Previously known as the Greater Long-eared Bat 
N. timoriensis (GeofFroy, 1806), it is now recognized as a 
distinct endemic New Guinea species N. shirleyi Parnaby, 
2009. The Small-eared Nyctophilus N. microtis Thomas, 
* author for correspondence 
