''Austronomus'', known as Australasian free-tailed bats, is a

molossid The Molossidae, or free-tailed bats, are a family of bats within the order Chiroptera. The Molossidae is the fourth-largest family of bats, containing about 110 species as of 2012. They are generally quite robust, and consist of many strong-flyi ...

genus of

microchiropteran Microbats constitute the suborder Microchiroptera within the order Chiroptera (bats). Bats have long been differentiated into Megachiroptera (megabats) and Microchiroptera, based on their size, the use of echolocation by the Microchiroptera an ...

s. The two recognised species are the white-striped ''

Austronomus australis The white-striped free-tailed bat (''Austronomus australis'') is a species of bat in the family Molossidae. Its echolocation calls are audible to humans, which is a characteristic found in only a few microbat species. The species was formerly c ...

'', found in a wide distribution range across Australia, and the New Guinea species '' Austronomus kuboriensis''. The genus name was first proposed by

Tom Iredale Tom Iredale (24 March 1880 – 12 April 1972) was an English-born ornithologist and malacologist who had a long association with Australia, where he lived for most of his life. He was an Autodidacticism, autodidact who never went to university ...

and

Ellis Troughton Ellis Le Geyt Troughton (born in Sydney on 29 April 1893; died 30 November 1974) was an Australian zoologist and mammalogist. Biography Ellis Troughton began to exercise his interest in mammals at fourteen years of age, taking a role at the Au ...

in 1934, but this lacked a formal description until Troughton included one in his ''

Furred animals of Australia ''Furred Animals of Australia'' is a general reference book, first published in 1931, that gives accounts of Australian mammals, the continent's often unique marsupial and placental mammal fauna. The text and research for the book was undertaken b ...

'' (1944). The type species of the genus is ''Molossus australis'' Gray, 1838. The Australasian populations have also been allied to ''

Tadarida The genus ''Tadarida'' has 9 or more species of free-tailed bats divided into two subgenera, with the first of these containing seven species spread across the Old World (including southern Europe and North Africa, large parts of southern Asia, ...

'', a genus of widely distributed freetail bats.

References

Bat genera {{Molossidae-stub