November 1998
BOOK REVIEWS
tralian localities including the famous Riversleigh site (Archer et aI., 1991). On page 107, it
is cited that tube-nosed insectivorous bats (Murina) are restricted to Asia, whereas they also
occur as far from Asia as Papua New Guinea
and Australia On page 108, Miniopterus species
are correctly reported to hibernate in the northern part of their range, but there is omission of
the fact that they also hibernate in the southern
part of their range (again Australia is negected).
There is an Appendix listing scientific and
common names of 925 species of bats described
prior to 1993 as well as their conservation status.
It is unfortunate the author did not include the
approximately 30 species of bats described since
1993. Even more unfortunate, the preparators of
the appendix apparently used the 1994 IUCN
Red Data List Of Threatened Animals (Groombridge, 1994) to describe conservation status of
each species. A new edition, the 1996 IUCN
Red Data List Of Threatened Animals (Baillie
and Groombridge, 1996), was published I year
before the publication of Bats In Question, with
considerable modification to the conservation
status descriptors used in 1994. The result is that
the information on conservation status listed in
the appendix of Bats In Question is out of date
and uses obsolete terminology.
Bats In Question has a useful General Bibliography of 15 reference works to guide readers
into additional sources of basic interest. Also,
there is a Subject Bibliography listing several
references, often from technical journal articles,
that correspond to each of the 58 questions about
bats in the main text. There are 134 total literature citations in the Subject Bibliography; 71
of these are authored, co-authored, or edited by
Wilson himself.
Bats In Question conveys the strong positive
impact of bats in natural ecosystems in ways that
will captivate a broad spectrum of readers. There
are clear messages about magnificent adaptations possessed by bats, including topics as diverse as echolocation, flight, roosting mechanics, feeding behavior, reproduction, and hibernation. The photographs present the best side of
bats to anyone casually flipping through the
pages. Wilson's stories of how displaced bats
find their way home or communicate to conspecifics trapped in cloth bags and mist-nets warm
the heart. Most people reading even a few pages
or looking over the pictures will walk away with
1441
a better appreciation for bats, and the conservation of these incredible mammals will be a bit
easier to accomplish. Science may be about cold
facts, but conservation is a matter of emotion. I
recommend this book with enthusiasm to general readers. Professional biologists will find it
of importance with fielding phone calls from the
public or preparing general lectures about
bats.-FRANK 1. BONACCORSO, Department of
Natural History, Papua New Guinea National
Museum and Art Gallery, Port Moresby, Papua
New Guinea.
LITERATURE CITED
ARCHER, M., S. 1. HAND, AND H. GODTHELP. 1991. Riversleigh: the story of animals in ancient rainforests
of inland Australia. Reed Books, Chastswood, New
South Wales, Australia, 264 pp.
BAILUE, J., AND B. GROOMBRIOGE. 1996. 1996 IUCN
red list of threatened animals. The World Conservation Union, Gland, Switzerland, 368 pp.
GROOMBRIDGE, B. 1994. 1994 IUCN red list of threatened animals. The World Conservation Union,
Gland, Switzerland, 286 pp.
JOllmal of Mammalogy, 79{4): 1441-1443, 1998
Bates, P. J. J., and D. L. Harrison. 1997.
INDIAN SUBCONTINENT. Harrison
Zoological Museum, Sevenoaks, Kent, UK. 258
pp. ISBN 0-9517313-1-9, price (paper), £55.00.
BATS OF THE
Several years ago, Bates and colleagues published a series of companion papers (Bates et al.,
1994a, 1994b, 1994c) which augmented and extended a previous survey of the bats of western
India by Andre Brasset (1963). Bates and Harrison have now parlayed these efforts into a
comprehensive treatise on the taxonomy, distribution, and natural history of bats across the entire Indian subcontinent. They have done a commendable job.
The geographic scope of this book encompasses India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Following a
foreword by 1. C. Daniels of the Bombay Natural History Society and an acknowledgments
section, a short introduction explains the objectives of the book. This is followed by a wel1illustrated guide to morphological measurements
and a brief synopsis of the evolution and taxonomic diversity of the order Chiroptera. The remainder of the book is devoted to accounts for
1442
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY
14 species within the suborder Megachiroptera
(eight genera, one family) and 105 species within the suborder Microchiroptcra (29 genera, seven families) that are known to occur within the
subcontinent.
There are introductory sections and character matrices for each family and genus, Depending on the quantity of published information available, the individual species accounts include all or most of the following
subsections: External Characters, Cranial
Characters, Dentition, Karyology, Variation,
Taxonomic Remarks, Distribution, Habits,
Feeding, Reproduction, and Conservation Status, The species accounts are comprehensive
and up-to-date, They represent a highly valuable compilation of information, much of
which was gleaned from the Indian literature.
The authors apparently overlooked Bhat and
Sreenivasan's (1990) survey of the bats of
Karnataka, but I found no other serious errors
of omission in the bibliography. Interspersed
with the text are line-and-stipple drawings, tables of measurements, and distribution maps.
The drawings are provided in most of the spe~
des accounts to illustrate diagnostic features
of the dentition, skull, baculum, tragus, noseleaf (for hipposidedd and rhinolophid bats), or
other parts of the soft anatomy. The quality of
the illustrations is excellent. Color photographs are provided for 56 species in the middle of the book. The quality of the photographs is somewhat uneven. Each species account includes a table summarizing various
external, cranial, and dental measurements.
Unfortunately, measurements for both sexes
are pooled, even for those species in which
significant sexual dimorphism has been documented (e.g., Rousettus leschenaulti, R. aegyptiacus, Eonycteris spelaea, Rhinopoma microphyllum, and Philetor brachypterus). The
distribution maps are clear and accurate. Map
symbols indicating localities of record are
based on museum collections or published accounts. The maps include localities of record
for Afghanistan, Tibet, and northern Myanmar,
in addition to those from the subcontinent
proper. In the Distribution section, these records are listed by country and (for Pakistan,
India, and Sri Lanka) by state or province.
Each record includes the citation of a specific
museum collection or literature reference. Fol-
Vol. 79, No, 4
lowing the last of the species accounts are a
glossary of terms and a collection of excellent
line-and-stipple drawings illustrating features
of the dentition, skull, skeleton, and soft anatomy of bats. This is followed by a geographfeal gazetteer, inclusive bibliography, and indices of both vernacular and scientific names.
The majority of bat species within the Indian subcontinent have their centers of distribution in the tropical Indo-Chinese and Malayan subregions of the Oriental faunal realm,
and a smaller number appear to have their origins in the tropical deserts of Asia and eastern
Africa (Brasset, 1963). Information on extralimital distributions is thus crucial to a full understanding of the zoogeography of these taxa.
This information is provided in the text of
each generic account and in the Distribution
section of each species account. The overall
value of this book would have been greatly
enhanced if the authors had included a synthesis of the historical biogeography of the region. This would have provided a context for
the wealth of information summarized in the
distribution maps. As it stands, the uninitiated
reader will have to seek out other sources to
gain a full appreciation of the possible forces
responsible for the many peculiar and thoughtprovoking geographical patterns, such as the
curiously disjunct distributions of Megaderma
spasma and Harpiocephalus harpia. The Indian subcontinent is a fertile testing ground for
zoogeographical hypotheses (Mani, 1974) and
a synthetic treatment of this subject would
have made this book a more-complete reference. Also, an overview of biotic zones and
the current state of the natural environment in
the Indian subcontinent would have provided
a broader context for information about distribution limits and habitat associations.
Minor shortcomings aside, this book is a highly valuable contribution to mammaIogy in South
Asia. In the foreword, Mr. Daniels expresses the
hope that this compilation represents the first in
a series on the mammals of the Indian subcontinent. The authors appear to be up to the task.
In many of the species accounts, the sections
entitled "Variation" and "Taxonomic remarks"
highlight our rudimentary state of knowledge
about the nature of regional variation and species boundaries in these taxa. The degree of taxonomic uncertainty surrounding many deriva-
November 1998
BOOK REVIEWS
tives of the Malayan fauna, such as the cynopterine fruit bats, indicates that the extent to
which regional variation within the subcontinent
can be attributed to purely allochthonous diversification remains an open, empirical question,
As this book makes clear, the bat fauna of the
Indian subcontinent offers a wealth of research
opportunities for answering questions of relevance to both evolution and conservation, This
book should provide a good starting point for
efforts to address the many important and unanswered questions surrounding the ecology, zoogeography, and systematics of paleotropical
bats. Bates and Harrison are to be congratulated
for aiding those efforts.-JA Y E STORZ, Department of Biology, Boston University, 5 Cummington Street, Boston, MA 02215.
1443
LITERATURE CiTED
BATES, P. J. 1., D. L. HARRISON, and M. MUNJ. 1994a.
The bats of western India revisited. Part r. Iournal
of the Bombay Natural History Society, 91:1-15.
- - - . 1994h. The bats of western India revisited.
Part II. lournal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 91:224-240.
- - - . 1994c. The bats of western India revisited.
Part III. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 91:360-380.
BHAT, H. R., AND M. A. SREENIVASAN. 1990. Records
of bats in Kyasanur forest disease area and environs
in Karnataka state, India, with ecological notes.
Mammalia, 54:69-106.
BROSSET, A. 1963. The bats of central and western
India. Part IV. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 60:337-355.
MANI, M. S. 1974. Biogeographic evolution in India.
Pp. 698-724, in Ecology and biogeography of India
(M. S. Mani, ed.). Dr. W. Junk Publishers, The
Hague, Netherlands.