''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 ...

s in the family Pteropodidae. It contains two species: *

Borneo fruit bat The Borneo fruit bat (''Aethalops aequalis'') is a species of megabat found in the mountains of Borneo, specifically East Malaysia and Brunei. It is considered a subspecies of '' Aethalops alecto'' by some authors. The Borneo fruit bat typical ...

, ''A. aequalis'' * Pygmy fruit bat, ''A. alecto''

Taxonomy

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

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

, ''A. aequalis''. This species was described by American zoologist

Glover Morrill Allen Glover Morrill Allen (February 8, 1879 – February 14, 1942) was an American 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. While s ...

. 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 seve ...

was collected in 1937 in

Mount Kinabalu Mount Kinabalu ( ms, Gunung Kinabalu, Dusun: ''Gayo Ngaran or Nulu Nabalu'') is the highest mountain in Borneo and Malaysia. With an elevation of , it is third-highest peak of an island on Earth, and 20th most prominent mountain in the worl ...

, Malaysia, which is on the island of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the List of islands by area, 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 Isl ...

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

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 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. Th ...

References

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