Pipistrellus ponceleti Troughton 1936

Pipistrellus ponceleti Troughton, 1936a

Rec. Aust. Mus. 19(5): 351. (7 April 1936).

Common name. New Guinea Pipistrelle.

Current name. Pipistrellus angulatus ponceleti Troughton, 1936a; following Simmons (2005). Regarded as a valid subspecies by Flannery (1995c) and Bonaccorso (1998) but as a junior synonym of P. angulatus angulatus (Peters, 1880) by Kitchener et al. (1986).

Holotype. M.5798 by original designation. Male, skull, study skin, original collector’s number 365, collected and presented by the Rev. J. B. Poncelet. Collection date not given in register, registered 27 December 1934.

Condition. Cranium missing zygomatic arches and upper left canine, auditory capsules are detached; dentaries complete. Study skin in fair condition: fur missing from much of abdominal area, probably from fur slip; tear in right wing membrane at distal end of digit 4, and tear in left wing membrane between digit 5 and body. The study skin is tied to cardboard with its ventral side visible.

Type locality. “Buin, Sth Bougainville Id”, North Solomons Province, Papua New Guinea.

Paratypes. (5, 4 by subsequent determination). Same locality and collector as holotype: M.5598, male, body in alc.; M.5599 (by original designation), female (allotype), skull, study skin, and M.5600, female, body in alc., all three registered 2 July 1934; M.5799, male, skull, body in alc., and M.5807, male, body in alc., both registered 27 December 1934.

Comments. Troughton indicates a type series of six specimens including the holotype, but gives registration numbers only for the holotype and allotype. Four specimens are labelled as paratypes on specimen labels and in the M Register in what appears to be Troughton’s handwriting. M.5807 is not labelled as a paratype, either on the specimen label or register, but is assumed to be the sixth specimen of Troughton’s series and regarded as a paratype —it was registered on the same day as the holotype and is the only specimen located with matching dates. In his original account, Troughton refers to a specimen from Isabel and three from Ugi Island (Solomon Islands), which he regarded as conforming well to his type series. These specimens are likely to include M.3583 from Isabel, and A.16992 and A.16995 from Ugi (all amended to Pipistrellus ponceleti in Troughton’s hand in the registers) and they are treated as referred specimens. Five topotype specimens in alcohol collected in the Buin district in 1938 were presented by Poncelet and identified as P. ponceleti by Troughton: M.6533–34 and M.6658–60.