Pteropus howensis Troughton, 1931

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 : 386

Pteropus howensis Troughton, 1931

Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 56(3): 204. (15 July 1931).

Common name. Ontong Java Flying-fox.

Current name. Pteropus howensis Troughton, 1931 ; following Simmons (2005).

Holotype. M.4408 by original designation. Female adult, skull ( Fig. 50 ), study skin, collected and presented by H. I. Hogbin, registered 29 October 1928. Collection date not given.

Condition. Cranium lacks both ectotympanic rings, otherwise complete; left dentary broken behind 2nd post-canine tooth; right dentary complete. Study skin: bald patch either side of abdomen.

Type locality. Lord Howe Group (Ontong Java), Malaita Province, Solomon Islands.

Paratypes. (3, by original designation). All from Lord Howe Group, presented by Mr T. B. Walton and registered in December 1929: M.4824, female adult, skull, study skin, tongue and palate in alc.; M.4825, subadult male (allotype), skull, study skin; and M.4826, subadult male, body in alc.

Comments. The original account gives the type series as four specimens, citing registration numbers. M.4827, a juvenile of M.4824 (a body in alc.) is not marked as a paratype in the register. The date of collection is not recorded for the holotype or paratypes, either in the register, specimen labels or oldest jar labels.

Figures

Figure 50. AM M.4408, holotype skull of Pteropus howensis Troughton, 1931. (Photography by Stuart Humphreys).