''Aethalops'' (Meaning: sooty bat) is a genus of

megabat Megabats constitute the family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera (bats). They are also called fruit bats, Old World fruit bats, or—especially the genera ''Acerodon'' and ''Pteropus''—flying foxes. They are the only member of the su ...

s in the family Pteropodidae. It contains two species: * Borneo fruit bat, ''A. aequalis'' * Pygmy fruit bat, ''A. alecto''

Taxonomy

''Aethalops'' was described as a new genus in 1923 by British mammalogist

Oldfield Thomas Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time. He was appoin ...

. Thomas named the genus ''Aethalodes'', though that name was already in use for a genus of beetle. Thomas then suggested the name ''Aethalops'' in a subsequent publication to remedy the problem. The type species for the genus was the pygmy fruit bat, ''Aethalops alecto'', which had been collected in

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Lambertus Johannes Toxopeus Lambertus Johannes Toxopeus (1894 - April 21, 1951) was a Java-born, Dutch nationality lepidopterist. He mainly worked in Indonesia then known as the Dutch East Indies and specialised in the families Lycaenidae and Hesperiidae. Wikispecies provides ...

. In 1938, the genus gained its second species, the Borneo fruit bat, ''A. aequalis''. This species was described by American zoologist

Glover Morrill Allen Glover Morrill Allen (February 8, 1879 – February 14, 1942) was an American zoology, zoologist. He was born at Walpole, New Hampshire, the son of Reverend Nathaniel Glover Allen and Harriet Ann (Schouler) Allen, and studied at Harvard University ...

. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

was collected in 1937 in

Mount Kinabalu Mount Kinabalu ( ms, Gunung Kinabalu, Dusun language, Dusun: ''Gayo Ngaran or Nulu Nabalu'') is the highest mountain in Borneo and Malaysia. With an elevation of , it is List of islands by highest point, third-highest peak of an island on Eart ...

, Malaysia, which is on the island of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

. It was collected by J. Augustus Griswold, Jr. while on the Harvard Primate Expedition led by

Harold Jefferson Coolidge Jr. Harold Jefferson Coolidge Jr. (January 15, 1904IUCN: Announcement: The Harold Jefferson Coolidge Memorial Medal 2008'', URL retrieved 2011-01-21. – February 15, 1985''The New York Times'', obituary:Harold Coolidge, Expert on Exotic Mammals ...

The genus has been revised over the years, with some authors considering it

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

, or only containing one species. The Borneo fruit bat has, at times, been considered a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of the pygmy fruit bat. As of 2019, the prevailing consensus is that the genus does, in fact, contain two species.

Description

The two ''Aethalops'' species are among the smallest

s. Individuals weigh approximately and have a head and body length of . Individuals lack an external tail. ''Aethalops'' species' fur color is black or dark gray, and they has small ears.

Conservation

As of 2016, both species have an

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

status of

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q581985 Megabats Bat genera Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas