OCR Text |
Show 1876.] MR. G. E. DOBSON ON THE MOLOSSI. 719 Inc. ^ or-; pm. ^-^ ; ears united or close together. (Subgen. NYCTINOMUS, Peters.) 1. NYCTINOMUS AERICANUS. Nyctinomus africanus, Dobson, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, vol. xviii. p. 348 (1876). Ears large, their inner margins arising from perfectly distinct points of origin though close together, outer and inner margins of the ear-conch regularly convex, forming an arc of a circle; antitragus irregularly quadrilateral with a broad base, separated posteriorly by a moderately deep notch, upper margin straight or even slightly concave ; tragus broad, evenly rounded off above ; keel of the ear very prominent, thickened and flattened externally in lower third. Fur bright orange-chestnut above and beneath. The fur of the body extends upon the wing-membrane above almost as far as a line drawn from the middle of the humerus to the knee, and upon the base of the interfemoral membrane ; the remainder of the upper surface is naked. Beneath, the fur scarcely extends so far outwards upon the wing-membrane between the humerus and femur as upon the upper surface ; but a narrow band of short hairs passes outwards behind the posterior margin of the forearm to the carpus. Lower incisors 4, not crowded; first upper premolar very short and blunt, but occupying by its base the whole space between the canine and second premolar. Length: head and body 3"*4 ; tail 2"*4, tail free from membrane 1"*5; head 1"*2; ear 1"*0, tragus 0"*3x0"*15; forearm 2"*5 ; thumb 0"*4; second finger-metatarp. 2"*4, 1st ph. 1"*1, 2nd ph. 1"*3; third finger-metacarp. 2"*15, 1st ph. 0"*9, 2nd ph. 0"*35 ; fourth finger-metacarp. 1"*25, 1st ph. 0"*75, 2nd ph. 0"*3; tibia 0''*75 ; foot and claws 0"*45. Hab. South Africa (Transvaal Republic). Type in the collection of the British Museum. 2. NYCTINOMUS CESTONI. Dinops cestonii, Savi, Nuov. Giorn. de' Letter, p. 230 (1825); Bullet, des Sci. Nat. viii. p. 286 (1826) ; Temminck, Monogr. Mammal, i. p. 262 (1835-41). Dysopes riippellii, Temm. I. c. ii. p. 224. Dysopes midas, Sundevall, Stockh. Vet. Ak. Handl. 1842, p. 207. Dysopes cestonii, Wagner, Suppl. Schreb. Saugeth. v. p. 702 ; var. nigrogriseus, Schneider, Nouv. M e m . Soc. Helvet. xxiv. 1871, p. 9. Nyctinomus insignis, Blyth, Cat. M a m m . Mus. A. S. Beng. (1863). Nyctinomus (Dysopes) ventralis, Heuglin, Nova Acta Acad. Leop.-Carol. 1861, p. 11*. Dysopes (Molossus) rueppelli, Swinhoe, P. Z.S. 1870, p. 619. Nyctinomus cestonii, Dobson, Mon. As. Chiropt. p. 180(1876). Ears united by the bases of their inner margins on the muzzle at * The type of N. ventralis is preserved in the Stuttgart Museum, and, Dr. Krauss informs me, is identical with N. cestoni. |