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Studies on the Two New Zealand Bats

Discussion

Discussion

The hair structure of C. tuberculatus agrees in some respects, such as the hastate coronal scale form, with the generalized vespertilionid structure described by Benedict (1957) but it differs in the lack of distinct overhair and underhair. Benedict described C. gouldii as being the only bat in which the hair scales show entire margins in the proximal third and denticulate margins thereafter. In this respect and in the coarser nature of the filaments C. gouldii is strikingly different from C. tuberculatus. In the lack of differentiation of overhair and underhair and in the arrangement of the melanin within the filament the two species agree. The two species of the African Glauconycteris described by Benedict are clearly separated from Chalinolobus in details of hair structure. In both G. humeralis and G. varigata papilio overhair and underhair are present and the melanin is dispersed generally, not in bands proximally as in Chalinolobus. The scale form of the underhair is short, appressed, hastate coronal except in the distal third of the filament of G. varigata papilio where it becomes lobate.

The two trends away from the typical vespertilionid scale form which occur in these closely related genera are represented more completely in other genera. Thus Scotophilus has lobate coronal scales and like Glauconycteris has both overhair . and underhair and Mimetellus has dentate coronal scales and corresponds with Chalinolobus in the absence of distinct hair types.