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Show 1892.] AND BATRACHIANS FROM BARBARY. 7 This widely distributed Bat was recorded from the Tunisian Chotts by M . Lataste in 1885, and again, in 1885, from El H a m m am de Cabes, at the eastern extremity of these salt-water lakes of Tunisia. Genus MINIOPTERUS, Bonaparte. 4. M I N I O P T E R U S SCHREIBERSI, Natterer; Lataste, Etude de la Faune des Vertebres de Barbarie, 1885, p. 75. 2 <$ & 2 $ , cave at H a m m a m Meskoutine, Province of Constantine. The most easterly point in the distribution of this Bat recorded by M . Lataste was Cape Okas, near Bougie. This new locality brings it close to Tunisia, in which province, however, it has not yet been observed. Order INSECTIVORA. Family I. MACROSCELIDID^E. Genus M A C R O S C E L I D E S. 1. M A C R O S C E L I D E S ROZETI, Duvernoy ; Lataste, Etude de la Faune des Vertebre's de Barbarie, 1885, p. 77 ; id. Cat. Crit. des Mammif. Apelagiques Sauvages, 1887, p. 4. 2 d & 2 $ , Duirat, Tunisia ; 1 $ , hills behind Biskra. This species has been found at Mount Santa Cruz, Oran (in the Tell), whence also probably came the specimen from which Duvernoy described the species. It likewise inhabits the high plateaux, and has been recorded from (north to south) Ai'n Oussera, about 3000 ft. above the sea, Djelfa, 3792 ft., Ai'n el Ibel, about 3700 ft., and also from the slopes tending to the Sahara, such as Laghouat, 2437 ft., and Bou Saada, 1900 ft. The specimen recorded by me from Biskra, 360 ft. above the sea-level, was not obtained at this elevation, but from the hills behind, at what height I cannot say. M . Lataste belongs to the genus Hyalomma (Koch). The species seems to be either the Ixodes flavipes of Koch or the I. vespertilionis of the same author; it is not possible in the present state of our knowledge to identify it with certainty from immature specimens, but it is probable that the two species are not really distinct; both have been recorded as bat-parasites, the former by Kolenati, the iatter by Koch. According to modern classification this Acarid would belong to the genus Hyalomma, not Ixodes. "The other Acarid, of which there are numerous examples, was found by Dr. Anderson upon the same Bat and upon Plecotus auritus; it is one of tho creatures described by Kolenati as forming the genus Peptonyssus ; the species is probably his P. cruciplica. These Peplonyssi are all bat-parasites; but, although I a m not sure that the fact has been publicly recorded, I think there can be no doubt that all the species of the genus are larval forms of Ixodidse, the adults of which we may or m a y not be acquainted with, but which cannot at present be identified with the larva?." |
