Revision of the genera Macroglossus and Syconycteris and description of a new genus and species, Odontonycteris Meijeri

The small frugivorous Bats formerly headed under the specific title of Macroglossus minimus have heen split into two subgenera and seven species by Mr. Matschie (Die Fledermäuse des Berliner Museums für Naturkunde, 1. Lieferung, 1899). These subgenera are Macroglossus and Syconycteris, distinguished the one from the other under more by a character so typically pronounced, that I think this alone may suffice to make them worthy of generic rank. I mean the incisors, so minute in Macroglossus, meanwhile they are so well developed in Syconycteris; the difference in size is so great, that even palaeontologists might tell you without any hesitation whether a given fossil jaw with incisors belonged once to a species of the one or of the other genus. Another radical character is that in Macroglossus the wing-membrane is attached to the base of the fourth toe, in Syconycteris however to the base of the fifth toe. Mr. Matschie had but few specimens to his disposal therefore were left open several unsettled questions, so I think a revision may perhaps throw more light on the understanding of this most difficult group of Bats.