A new species of Glauconycteris (Vespertilionidae, Chiroptera) /

Abstract

In a systematic study of the African genus Glauconycteris Dobson, we have found a series of white-winged specimens that represent a new species that has not been previously described. The genera (or subgenera) Chalinolobus Peters of the Australasian region and Glauconycteris from Africa are closely related as discussed by Dobson (1875, 1878), Miller (1907), Ryan (1966), Hayman (1967), Hayman and Hill (1971), and Koopman (1971). Arguments have been advanced that all species belong to one genus ( Chalinolobus), that the two should be considered subgenera, or that generic distinction should be retained for the two taxa, an option that has been widely followed in recent years. We tentatively recognize Glauconycteris as a genus pending the results of our own analysis of variation within each of the African species, now in progress. We have compared the new taxon with all previously described species of Glauconycteris, but in our opinion, it needs critical comparison only with G. argentata (Dobson) and G. variegata (Tomes) as it differs so distinctly either in size or in pelage and wing coloration (or both) from all other known species. We are pleased to name this new species after Mr. Robert Glen, Nairobi, Kenya, who collected the holotype, assisted in the collection of the Uganda series of the new species, and who has been a field companion extraordinaire