Some remarks on Hipposideros speoris and Hipposideros larvatus (Chiroptera, Rhinolophoidea)

Three hitherto unpublished specimens of Hipposidéros larvátus (HORSFIELD, 1824) from the Island of Nias (off Sumatra’s West Coast), and one specimen of the same species from the Island of Sumba (ESE of Java) led us to a critical study of the subgeneric ”spéoris-group” of this genus of horseshoe bats. The taxonomical history of the genus Hipposideros Gray, 1831 is resumed (§ 1). The original picture of H. speoris (Schneider, 1800), under the name Vespertilio speoris was easily found in several libraries. The accompanying text, however, proved to be extremely rare. Thanks to the kind help of Dr van Deursen of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, we can give here the original text (§ 2) of which the date is discussed. The type locality of this species is the Oriental region (§ 5). The occurrence of this species is generally recorded from India and Pakistan, and from Ceylon. Some measurements of specimens from Ceylon are given in table 3. Its occurrence in Timor and in Amboina, from where it was recorded in 1813 and 1835, seems rather dubious. We interpret Rhinólophus crumeniferus PéRON, 1807, from Timor, sometimes considered to be a synonym of Hipposideros speoris, as Hipposideros cf. cervinus (Gould, 1854) (§ 3).