Pharotis imogene (New Guinea Big-eared Bat)

[Melanie]

A video

www.universityherald.com/articles/9762/20140605/extinct-papua-new-guinea-bat-species-queensland-ear-italy.htm

[Melanie]

Here is Oldfield Thomas' scientific description

www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/61720#page/395/mode/1up

It would be interesting to know who is the mysterious Imogene in the specific epithet?

[Melanie]

Last weekend I've asked Dr. Kris Helgen about his knowledge about the specific epithet of Pharotis imogene. Here is his reply:

I am not sure of the origin of the specific epithet imogene in this case. There is a Shakespearean Imogen, but I don't think that is the allusion here. Since the specimens came to Thomas via the collector Loria and via Doria at Genova, the name may reference a female connected in some way to Loria, Doria, or the museum at Genova, but I do not know whom this would be. An interesting possibility is that the name refers to Lewis' poem "Alonzo the Brave and the Fair Imogene", popular in the 19th century, in which Imogene is spirited away by a jealous ghost on her wedding night, and re-appears in ghostly form ever after. In this case, the fact that the only previous collection event for Pharotis was of a large number of females only (probably collected together, from a communal tree roost?), with no males, might have recalled to Thomas the virginal Imogene, and the use of the name for a bat, in allusion to Imogene's ghostly form, who returns by night, would be apt. This is an interesting possibility, and it seems like Thomas to me. Please cite me as the source of this possibility if you publish it on Wikipedia.

In any case, I love the name Thomas chose, both genus and species, and it is marvelous to see the species rediscovered.

Kris Helgen (pers. comm.) by e-mail 2014-06-15

[surroundx]

Parnaby, Harry, Ingleby, Sandy and Divljan, Anja. (2017). Type specimens of non-fossil mammals in the Australian Museum, Sydney. Records of the Australian Museum 69(5): 277-420.