Nyctophilus daedalus Thomas, 1915a

Parnaby, Harry E., Ingleby, Sandy & Divljan, Anja, 2017, Type Specimens of Non-fossil Mammals in the Australian Museum, Sydney, Records of the Australian Museum 69 (5), pp. 277-420 : 408

Nyctophilus daedalus Thomas, 1915a

Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (ser. 8) 15: 498. (1 May 1915).

Common name. Pallid Long-eared Bat.

Current name. Nyctophilus daedalus Thomas, 1915a ; following Jackson & Groves (2015).

Material. M.1323 (= N. arnhemensis Johnson, 1959 ), adult female, body in alc. (skull in situ), Daly River , N. Territory, collected by Dr K. Dahl, exchanged with the Christiania Museum (now NHMO) and registered 26 July 1898 .

Comments. The specimen was on loan from the AM to Thomas during the preparation of his taxonomic revision of the genus. In a letter dated 18 March 1915 to the AM (AM Archives AMS9 Letters Received, L.104/1915), Thomas indicated that he used the AM material in his generic revision; he listed M.1323 as N. daedalus and on that basis we regard it as potentially part of the original series. Thomas (1915a) stated that he examined specimens of N. daedalus from Port Essington, NT and Melville Island in addition to the type locality of Daly River, but does not indicate the number of specimens examined. Parnaby (2009) demonstrated that several taxa are likely to be included within what is currently recognized as “ daedalus ”. However, M.1323 is regarded here as N. arnhemensis and is smaller than specimens assigned to the daedalus complex, e.g., forearm length = 37.7 mm, compared to 40.0–46.0 mm for adult female daedalus . This indicates that the type series of N. daedalus is a species composite and although likely to be part of the original series, M.1323 is no longer considered here to be a paratype.