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Show 110 MR. K. ANDERSEN ON BATS [May 1<>, equinum, three eastern (nippon, tragatus, regains), and three western (proximus, the typical form, and obscurus). They are sufficiently differentiated to need technical names, but in no respect-in the external characters, in the skull, in the dentition- is there a sharp " hard-and-fast" line between them:- In the extreme east (S. China and Japan) we find a Bat (nippon) of moderate size and with rather small teeth ; the dentition, too, has remained on a rather primitive stage of development; but the horse-shoe and nasal swellings are very broad. Some of these peculiarities, viz. the broad horse-shoe and nasal swellings, are preserved in the Central Himalayan tragatus, but the general size of the animal is increased, the skull and teeth very large, the dentition more highly developed. This latter character reaches a climax in the next form, regulus, from the NVW. Himalayas, but at the same time the horse-shoe and nasal swellings are markedly narrower; in this respect regulus evidently shows tendencies towards the western races, as also might be expected from its habitat.-These three Bats constitute what I call the " eastern " races of ferrum-equinum. The geographical line separating them from the western races must be drawn somewhere between Masuri and Gilgit, at the border between the Oriental and Pakearctic Regions. East of that line the individuals are generally larger, with broader horse-shoe; the lateral mental grooves not rarely fully developed; the tail on an average only 1^ the length of the lower leg. Passing from Masuri (still regulus) to Gilgit, on the extreme north-western, " Pakearctic " side of the Himalayas, we find a form (proximus) with small and slender skull, narrower horseshoe and nasal-swellings ; which give it a decidedly " western " aspect, and contrast it with its eastern neighbour, regulus; but it has retained the somewhat shorter tail characteristic of the eastern races. The typical form has got rid also of this reminiscence, but, as a matter of fact, also in this race now and then, though rarely, individuals occur which " fall back" to the shorter-tailed eastern stage. The typical form leads to the generally smaller, extreme south-western race (obscurus : Spain, Algeria). A closer study of these races, as compared with the Ethiopian Rh. augur and Rh. deckeni, will throw some light on the past history of the ferrum-equinum type (see the " General Remarks" on the simplex group, below, p. 118). 14 a. R h in o lo ph u s f e r r um - e q u in um n ippo n Temm. Rhinolophus nippon Temminck, Mon. Mamin, ii. 8(' monogr. (1835) p. 30a; Temminck & Schlegel, Fauna Japonica (1842). p. 14, pi. iii. figs. 1, 2; Peters, MB. Akad. Berlin, 1871. p. 312. Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum (partim) Dobson, Cat. Chir. Br it. Mus. (1878) p. 119. Diagnosis. Size moderate, horse-shoe very broad. Skull small, but with rather broad nasal swellings; tooth-rows very short. |
