O. G. Dely szerk.: Vertebrata Hungarica 16. (Budapest, 1975)
Topál, Gy.: Bacula of some Old World Leaf-nosed bats (Rhinolophidae and Hipposideridae, Chiroptera: Mammalia) 21-54. o.
tip 0,09 mm. The bone shows a continuous bend (arcuate)" with its tip towards the ventral side. From above the base is narrower than the widest protion of the shaft. There is a constriction between the base and the shaft. The base has a strongly protruding proximo-dorsal lobe and a small ventral one. The shaft is slightly flattened dorsoventrally. Distally it is widening from the base, then, from about one-third length of the bone, tapering towards the tip which makes a small knob (as seen from above and also in the lateral view) . The ventral surface of the bone exhibits a longitudinal median depression, except at the ventral lobe of the base, and at the junction of the shaft and the tip. CONCLUSIONS While in the Hipposiderida e there is present a terminal fork or some trace of it in the majority of species studied, it is always lacking in every Rhinolophus . On the contrary, the basal cone is a typical feature of all species of Rhinolophi, and a rare phenomenon in Hipposideridae. The grouping of Rhinolophus is possible by the ventral or dorsal bend of shaft and tip, the flattening of the shaft, that is, by the attached wings. Hipposiderids seem more diverse. The probable basic type of baculum is that of H. cineraceus . From this, at least four more groups can be deduced. The first is a simplified shape with no sharp reduction in measurements. Here belong some members of the conventional bicolor group and Coelops . The second group contains bats with a rudimentary baculum with mostly reduced measurements as of H. bi co lor , H. s peoris, and H.galeritus. The third group made of middle or bigsized species of the formerly established speoris and armiger groups and a small species of the bicolor group ( H. gilberti ). In these the baculum displays a pronounced and enlarged terminal portion and an apical fork modified as lappets, hooks, etc. Aselliscus is probably in a separate, fourth group with its strongly asymmetrical bone, as if representing a transitional stage between the basic ( cineraceus ) type and the forkless (bicolor-fulvus) type. All these characters provide proof for a more progressed evolution of Hipposideridae as compared to that of Rhinolophidae. The present study, in many cases, support to accept different subspecies described earlier. In these there are differences mostly in size. In other cases, however, such as in Rh. midas, Rh. sinicus , H. gilberti, H. durgadasl, H . alongensis , there are enormous r. orphological differences, so we have to regard them distinct at a species level. The author would suggest the extension of this kind of studies on all species of these two families, both on the bone and on the soft parts of the penis. The future results might shed a new light on the sofisticated systematics of Hipposideridae , and offer better basis for the long ago wanted, uptodate revision of Rhinolophidae .
