[Gutenberg 40112] • Systematics of Megachiropteran Bats in the Solomon Islands

[...] 1843. Xantharpyia Gray, List of species ... British Museum, p. 37. 1852. Cynonycteris Peters, Reise nach Mossambique, p. 25. The genus Rousettus occurs throughout the tropical regions of the Old World, and in the Solomons is readily distinguished from all other megachiropteran genera by having both a small claw on the second digit and free caudal vertebrae. The oriental species have been divided into two groups on the basis of size (Tate, 1942:344). The subspecies Rousettus amplexicaudatus hedigeri appears to be the sole representative of this genus in the Solomon Islands. Prior to 1953, several workers (Thomas, 1887b:323, 1888b:475; Matschie, 1899:68; Sanborn, 1931:11) used the name Rousettus amplexicaudatus brachyotis for it, but Pohle (1953) suggested that the specimens from the Solomons recorded by earlier workers were R. a. hedigeri named by him on the basis of the specimen that he saw from Bougainville.[...].