Pteropus rufus Ramsay, 1891b

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 : 387-388

Pteropus rufus Ramsay, 1891b junior homonym

Rec. Aust. Mus. 1(6): 105. (31 March 1891).

Common name. Great Flying-fox.

Current name. Pteropus neohibernicus neohibernicus Peters, 1876b ; following Simmons (2005).

Syntypes. (3) All three specimens were entered in the Palmer Register in c. 1878 as “ Pteropus sp. ”. PA.1260,?female, study skin, skull apparently removed (not found), skin tag states “number 9”, October 1876, Rev. George Brown. Possibly adult based on the size of the skin. Label states “skull?”, but the skull has not been recorded during inventory and is unlikely to be in the Collection. The sex (female) was based on the appearance of the skin: no obvious penis, but the wings are folded and nipples cannot be assessed; PA.1261,?female, skull ( Fig. 51 ), study skin, Bismarck Archipelago, Rev. George Brown, register indicates “Fruit Bat new number 11”. Probably sub-adult, based on size and nulliparous condition of nipples. PA.1262,?male, skin mount with skull in situ, skin label indicates from George Brown, Bismarck Archipelago. Possibly sub-adult, based on size .

Condition. PA.1260: Study skin, with minor holes in wing membranes, fracture in left femur. PA.1261: Cranium missing occipital area and lateral tips of postorbital processes, soft palate retained on skull. Study skin with minor holes in wing membranes. PA.1262: Skin mount, with bald patch in the lower dorsal side, membrane tears and broken bones of the left digits 2 and 3.

Cranial measurements (mm). PA.1261: GL, —; NasL, 20.90; NasB, 6.95; UC1–C1 (alv.), 13.36; PAL, 44.68*; UPM (alv.), 4.75; UMR (alv.), 10.51; ZB, 37.63; POC, 11.06; BUL, —; MB, —; DL (condyl.), 61.07; LPM (alv.), 5.27; LMR (alv.), 14.17. [* = estimate, posterior margin obscured by tissue].

Type locality. “ New Britain Group of islands” (Ramsay), Papua New Guinea.

Comments. Andersen (1912: 389) noted that Pteropus rufus Ramsay is a preoccupied name and is a junior homonym. Pteropus rufus É. Geoffroy, 1803a occurs in Madagascar and Pteropus rufus Tiedemann, 1808 is a junior synonym of Pteropus niger ( Kerr, 1792) , see Simmons (2005).

The original material used by Ramsay as the basis of his description of rufus does not appear to have been reported in the literature, other than Andersen (1912: 389), who noted that several “cotypes” were in the AM. We believe the three specimens listed above are likely to be from Ramsay’s original series, based on matching locality, date, and collector, combined with limited information written on old specimen tags. Ramsay based his description of cranial and external morphology on a single adult female specimen, but does not give field or registration numbers, or indicate the number of specimens examined. However he stated that “several specimens” of this new species were amongst a series of specimens obtained from Rev George Brown in 1875 and on that basis were are assuming that he based his description on several specimens. These specimens were received at the AM in October 1876 (AM Archives AMS7 Letters Received, C:10.76.03), but were later incorrectly reported as having been purchased during 1877 ( Ramsay, 1878). Collection dates were not given, but would have been sometime in the previous year, given that Brown first visited the Bismarck Archipelago in August 1875 ( Brown, 1908).

We suspect that Ramsay’s original adult female is amongst the three specimens listed here, and if so, it would be PA.1260, the skull of which has not been located. Cranial measurements of PA.1261 are smaller than those given for the adult female of Ramsay’s account. The rear of the braincase of PA.1261 has been cut off and has a greatest length of 73.5 mm, but greatest skull length could not have been as long as 84 mm given by Ramsay; zygomatic breadth is 38.4 vs 45 mm, and “length of lower jaw from condyle” is 61.6 vs 67.5 mm.

Figures

Figure 51. AM PA.1261, syntype skull of Pteropus rufus Ramsay, 1891b. (Photography by Stuart Humphreys).