Chaerephon solomonis 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 : 394-395

Chaerephon solomonis Troughton, 1931

Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 56(3): 201, 1 table. (15 July 1931).

Common name. Solomons Mastiff Bat.

Current name. Chaerephon solomonis Troughton, 1931 ; following Simmons (2005), who tentatively recognized species status. Status unresolved (Ingleby & Colgan, 2003); variously treated as a subspecies of C. jobensis ( Miller, 1902) , e.g., Bonaccorso (1998) or a full species (e.g., Flannery, 1995c).

Holotype. M.3606 by original designation. Male, skull ( Fig. 56 ), study skin, collected by H. S. Heffernan on 15 August 1924, registered on 28 May 1925.

Condition. Cranium and dentaries complete. Study skin: bald patch on left side of abdomen, otherwise complete; the specimen is tied to cardboard with its ventral side visible.

Type locality. “ Cave at Mufu Point, 6 miles west of Tuarugu Village, SW coast of Ysabel” ( Troughton 1931), Isabel Province, Solomon Islands. Co-ordinates for Mufu Point are 8°16'S 159°20'E .

Paratypes. (177, 174 by subsequent determination).All from Mufu Point, same collector and collection date as holotype. Females. (137). M.3645, (by original designation as allotype), skull, study skin. Females, all bodies in alc.: M.3593–98, M.3633–35, M.3637–44, M.3647, M.3649–52. M.5149: 40 specimens were first registered under this number on 29 June 1931, and 39 were assigned individual numbers M.45998–46029 and M.46061–67 on 19 November 2013. M.5150: 40 specimens were first registered under this number on 29 June 1931 but 37 of the 38 specimens found in the collection were assigned individual numbers M.46068–98 and M.46125–30 on 19 November 2013. M.5151: 37 specimens were initially registered under this number on 29 June 1931 and 36 specimens were given individual numbers M.46099–24 and M.46131–40 on 19 November 2013. Males. (40). Skulls, study skins: M.3627, M.3632, M.3636. Males, all bodies in alc.: M.3585–91, M.3600–02, M.3604–05, M.3607–16, M.3618–26, M.3628–31, M.5147–48.

A further eight specimens are marked as having been sent to the following institutions, all sent as bodies in alc.: M.3617 , male, M.3646 , female, MCZ , sent 1938; M.3603 , male, M.3648 , female, Geographical Department, Moscow State University, sent July 1972; M.5145 – 46 , both male, Dr A. Starrett, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, sent 15 Dec 1961; M.3592 , male and M.3599 , female, Mr Luther Little (“ Los Angeles, USA ”), sent 1931. Two specimens originally entered under M.5150 are in the QM .

Comments. Troughton mentions “a series of more than 200 paratypes ”, but gives registration numbers for only three in his account: the allotype and the smallest (M.3632) and largest (M.3627) paratypes. The allotype registration number is mistakenly given as M.3636 (which is a male) in the table accompanying his account. Troughton registered 187 specimens of this species and all are accounted for. If the total number of specimens sent to Troughton exceeded 200, it seems that not all were originally registered in the AM Collection, or records might not have been made of material sent to other Institutions, e.g., those send to the QM. Ingleby & Colgan (2003) demonstrated fixed differences at 15% of loci between C. jobensis colonicus ( Thomas, 1906b) from Australia and solomonis and concluded that they were separate species. They suspected that solomonis was a distinct species, but were unable to conclusively resolve its status in relation to C. bregullae ( Felten, 1964) from Vanuatu and Fiji, and to nominate C. jobensis ( Miller, 1902) because they did not have samples of the latter taxon.

Figures

Figure 56. AM M.3606, holotype skull of Chaerephon solomonis Troughton, 1931. (Photography by Stuart Humphreys).