Pacific Flying Foxes (Mammalia: Chiroptera): Two New Species of Pteropus from Samoa, Probably Extinct

Abstract

Two new species of flying foxes (genus Pteropus) from the Samoan archipelago are described on the basis of modern museum specimens collected in the mid-19th century. A medium-sized species (P. allenorum, n. sp.) is introduced from the island of Upolu (Independent Samoa), based on a specimen collected in 1856 and deposited in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. It has not been collected again, and we regard it as almost certainly extinct. This species is smaller bodied and has much smaller teeth than both extant congeners recorded in the contemporary fauna of Samoa (Pteropus samoensis and P. tonganus). The closest relative of this new species may be Pteropus fundatus of northern Vanuatu. The disjunct historical distribution of these two smalltoothed flying foxes (in Vanuatu and Samoa) suggests that similar species may have been more extensively distributed in the remote Pacific in the recent past. Another species, a very large flying fox with large teeth (P. coxi, n. sp.), is described from two skulls collected in Samoa in 1839-1841 during the U.S. Exploring Expedition; it too has not been collected since. This robust species resembles Pteropus samoensis and Pteropus anetianus of Vanuatu in craniodental conformation but is larger than other Polynesian Pteropus, and in some features it is ecomorphologically convergent on the Pacific monkey-faced bats (the pteropodid genera Pteralopex and Mirimiri). On the basis of eyewitness reports from the early 1980s, it is possible that this species survived until recent decades, or is still extant. These two new Samoan species join Pteropus tokudae of Guam, P. pilosus of Palau, P. subniger of the Mascarenes, and P. brunneus of coastal north-eastern Australia as flying

Prehistoric Birds and Bats from the Atiahara Site, Tubuai, Austral Islands, East Polynesia

“…This is important because the edentulous mandible described by Weisler et al could possibly have been another similar-sized species such as P. samoensis. The recent discovery of two further Pteropus species among historically collected material (Helgen et al 2009), both now presumed extinct, shows that Samoa formerly had four sympatric species. The new species are considerably smaller (P. coxi) or considerably larger and more robust (P. allenorum) than the Tubuai specimens.…”

Museums: The endangered dead

“…In 2009, Kristofer Helgen, a mammal curator at the Smithsonian Institution, held the skull up to the light and realized it was an unknown species. More than 150 years after it was first collected, he named the species Pteropus allenorum -the small Samoan flying fox 3 . The species is already extinct on the island.…”

Bryanites graeffii sp. n. (Coleoptera, Carabidae): museum rediscovery of a relict species from Samoa

“…Predictably, examination of unidentified material collected long ago can produce surprising results, especially when the historical museum specimens represent the only evidence we have for existence of that particular species. For example, two Samoan species of flying fox, genus Pteropus Brisson, 1762 (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae), are known only from museum specimens collected between 1839 and 1856 (Helgen et al 2009). In this contribution, a Samoan carabid beetle specimen collected prior to 1871, and subsequently deposited in the Paris Natural History Museum, is shown to represent the only specimen known of a new species.…”

“…Legs gracile, elongate; profemur with eight setae along anteroventral margin; mesofemur with 8-11 setae along posteroventral margin; metacoxa bisetose, two lateral setae present anteriorly and posteriorly, median seta absent; metafemur with eight setae along posteroventral margin, three setae on anterodorsal surface near apex from 0.7-0.8× femoral length; metatarsomeres 1-3 convex dorsally, without evident inner or outer dorsal sulci; metatarsomere 4 lobate apically, length of outer apical lobe 0.4× median tarsomere length, length of inner lobe 0.25× median length; tarsomeres 1-4 with two parallel longitudinal rows of elongate ventrolateral setae each side of a central space, the setae of inner rows each side about half as long as setae of outer rows; metatarsomere 5 apparently with eight ventrolateral setae, equal in length to tarsomere depth, set in two longitudinal rows (several setae broken off). The pronotum and elytra of the type specimen are covered with a varnish-like substance that can be scraped off with diffi- (Helgen et al 2009). …”