A new species and two new subspecies of Hipposideros (Chiroptera) from Western Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Hipposideros edwardshilli n.sp., H. wollastoni parnabyi n.subsp. and H. w. fasensis n.subsp. are described on the basis of electrophoretic and morphological analysis. All are members of the Hipposideros cyclops group of Hill (1963). Hipposideros edwardshilli is closely related to H. corynophyllus. Additional material of H. corynophyllus (previously known from a single specimen with broken forearms) is described. FLANNERY, T.F. & D.J. COLGAN, 1993. A new species and two new subspecies of Hipposideros (Chiroptera) from Western Papua New Guinea. Records of the Australian Museum 45(1): 43-57. Hill (1963) considered that several highly distinctive species of Hipposideros belonged within a supraspecific grouping that he called the Hipposideros cyclops group. The group as then defined consisted of H. cyclops and H. camerunensis, both very large species from Africa, and H. semoni, H. stenotis, H. wollastoni and H. muscinus from Australia and New Guinea. Hill suggested that it was " ... a relict group of remote origin, a view supported by the profound differences between its Ethiopian representatives and its remallllllg representatives in the Australasian region ... ". Hill (1963) characterises the Australasian members of the group by their small size, large ears, complex noseleaves and broad skull. Among the distinctive features of the noseleaf Hill (1963) notes the following: the presence of two lateral supplementary leaflets, the intermediate part has a median tubercle and the posterior noseleaf is moderately developed with three supporting septa, its upper edge being more or less semicircular, thickened, and usually having a median club-like process. At the time of Hill's revision the various species were very poorly represented in Museum collections. Hill (1963) had available for study a single specimen each of H. muscinus, H. wollastoni and H. stenotis as well as nine H. semoni. Hill (1985) described Hipposideros corynophyllus, based upon a single specimen with both forearms broken. He assigned this new species to the H. cyclops group and suggested that it was a close relative of H. semoni. He also described three additional specimens of H. wollastoni from Telefomin and the nearby Tabubil area, western Papua New Guinea (Fig. 1). He noted that the additional H. wollastoni specimens all possess a club-like eminence in the middle of the posterior noseleaf, a feature that is lacking in the holotype, until then the only known specimen, which was collected in what is now Irian Jaya, approximately 480 km to the west of Telefomin (Fig. 1).