_Macroglossus lagochilus microtus_ Andersen 813 _Melonycteris aurantius_ Phillips 816 _Melonycteris woodfordi_ Thomas 816 _Nyctimene albiventer bougainville_ Troughton 818 _Nyctimene albiventer_ new subspecies 819 _Nyctimene_ new species 822 _Nyctimene major scitulus_ Andersen 825 ZOOGEOGRAPHY AND SPECIATION 825 LITERATURE CITED 834 INTRODUCTION The Solomon Islands constitute an archipelago east of the large island of New Guinea and more than a thousand miles off the northeastern coast of Australia. This archipelago, which is principally of volcanic origin although sedimentary layers of calcareous rocks occur on many islands (Lever, 1934; Belkin, 1962), consists of a double chain of islands having a northwest-southeast axis of more than 600 miles. The archipelago is more or less an extension of New Guinea and in fact is connected to it in stepping-stone fashion by New Britain, New Ireland, and numerous smaller islands (see Fig. 1). Australia and New Guinea have many kinds of mammals but the only terrestrial mammals in the Solomon Islands are a species of the genus _Phalanger_ (order Marsupialia), and several species of four genera of rodents, one genus of which probably was introduced by man. Additionally, several kinds of bats have reached and colonized the Solomon Islands. [Illustration: FIG. 1. Showing the Solomon Islands in relation to major adjacent land masses.] In the past 100 years at least 43 species and subspecies of Chiroptera of 16 genera have been recorded from the Solomon Islands; of these 27 species and subspecies of seven genera are in the suborder Megachiroptera. At least one genus of Megachiroptera is endemic as are numerous species of other genera, and subspecies of still other species.