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Show 322 MR. O. THOMAS ON BATS [Mar. 15, It is with considerable reluctance that I find myself compelled to add another species of Pteropus to the long list of those already known ; but the characters of Pt. grandis so entirely fail to fit in with those of any of the hitherto described species, that I have no alternative but to do so. Pt. grandis differs from every known species at all approaching its size by its dark maroon-coloured neck, throat, and sides, and by its bright yellow rump. Apart from coloration, again, it differs from Pt. edulis by its much smaller size and broadly edged canines, from Pt. gouldi, aneiteanus, and poliocephalus by its very much heavier teeth, and from Pt. melanopogon by its smaller teeth and longer pointed ears. On the whole it may be looked upon as most nearly allied to Pt. chrysoproctus, a native of the Moluccas, which resembles it in many of its characters, but differs by having its neck both above and below rich yellow, by its yellowish crown and dark-coloured rump. The teeth also of Pt. chrysoproctus are smaller and lighter than in Pt. grandis; the canines are thinner and have narrow postero-internal ledges, and, finally, there is a much greater space between the canines and second premolar below, the anterior premolar having a diameter less than the length of either of the diaste-mata in front of or behind it. To another species also Pt. grandis bears a certain amount of resemblance, namely to Pt. rayneri, Gray, also from the Solomon Islands; but that species has much shorter ears, and is very far smaller, having a forearm only 135 m m . long, a skull only 55 mm. long, and teeth which, although they have very much the same shape and relative proportions as in Pt. grandis, yet differ so markedly in their actual size as to preclude all possibility of the two species being the same. 2. PTEROPUS HYPOMELANUS, Temm. a. Alu, Shortland Island, 4/86. Previously known range, from Borneo to N e w Guinea. This is the first published notice of the occurrence of this species in the Solomon Isles ; but its discovery there was made in 1883, when Surgeon H. B. Guppy, of H.M.S. ' Lark,' obtained and sent to the Museum a specimen, also collected on Shortland Island. 3. PTEROPUS RAYNERI, Gray1. Discovered in the islands of San Christoval and Guadalcanar in 1 I may take this opportunity of stating that an examination of the typical specimen of Pteropus molossinus, Temm., preserved in the Leyden Museum, proves that the Caroline-Island Pfcrojjus described by m e in 1882 (P. Z. S. 1882, p. 756) under the name of Pt. breviceps is not really distinguishable from that species, of which, up to that date, the locality was unknown. I must, however, for m y own justification, point out that the shoulder-tufts of Pt. molossinus, instead of being " bright yellow " as has been described, are really of a dark orange-brown, but little in the type, and in m y specimens not at all, lighter than the general colour of the body. Nor can I at all fully appreciate the alleged resemblance in dentition between the very small-toothed Pt. molossinus (see figures t.c. pl. Iv.) and the large-toothed Pt. aneiteanus and Pt. jubatus, the latter of which has the largest teeth of any member of the genus. |
