The Admiralty flying fox (''Pteropus admiralitatum'') is a species of fruit bat in the family Pteropodidae, the megabats. It is found in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

and the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described by British zoologist

Oldfield Thomas Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for ...

in 1894, based on specimens that were initially collected by the "Challenger" Expedition in 1875. Its

species name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''admiralitum'' is a

Neo-Latin Neo-LatinSidwell, Keith ''Classical Latin-Medieval Latin-Neo Latin'' in ; others, throughout. (also known as New Latin and Modern Latin) is the style of written Latin used in original literary, scholarly, and scientific works, first in Italy d ...

rendering of "admiralty", which is in reference to the

Admiralty Islands The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 40 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-cov ...

where this species was first documented. The Admiralty flying fox is possibly a

species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

of three species, with one species occupying the

and the Solomon Islands from

Buka Island Buka Island is the second-largest island in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, in eastern Papua New Guinea. It is in Buka Rural LLG of North Bougainville District, with the Autonomous Region's and district's capital city of Buka, Bougai ...

Malaita Island Malaita is the primary island of Malaita Province in Solomon Islands. Malaita is the most populous island of the Solomon Islands, with a population of 161,832 as of 2021, or more than a third of the entire national population. It is also the se ...

. A second species is thought to occupy

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: *Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provinc ...

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomons by area and the second- ...

, and

. The third species is thought to occupy

Mussau Island Mussau Island is the largest island of St Matthias Islands, Papua New Guinea,Müller, Chris J. "Butterflies of Mussau Island (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera)." ''A Rapid Biodiversity Survey of Papua New Guinea’s Manus and Mussau Islands'' (2015): 21 ...

and Emirau Island.

Description

It is similar in appearance to the

small flying fox The small flying fox, island flying fox or variable flying fox (''Pteropus hypomelanus'') is a species of flying fox in the family Pteropodidae. It is found in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines ...

, though it is smaller. It is further distinguished by its much smaller ears and the fact that its chest and abdomen are the same color. The top of its head is pale gray, while the back of its neck is a reddish-brown. Its dorsal fur is brown, with some white hairs interspersed. The head and body length is approximately ; its forearm length is ; its ear length is .

Range and habitat

It is found in several countries in

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

, including

and

Conservation

It is currently evaluated as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

—its lowest conservation priority. While it is likely threatened to some extent by

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

and exploitation for

bushmeat Bushmeat is meat from wildlife species that are Hunting, hunted for human consumption. Bushmeat represents a primary source of animal protein and a cash-earning commodity in poor and rural communities of humid tropical forest regions of the worl ...

, these are not considered major problems. Overall, it is not of concern because it has a large geographic range, presumably large population size, and it is not thought to be in rapid decline.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q576022 Pteropus Bats of Oceania Mammals of Papua New Guinea Mammals of the Solomon Islands Mammals described in 1894 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Bats of New Guinea