c names were proposed for
the North American populations; Thomas named _Dasypterus ega xanthinus_
in 1897 (p. 544) from Baja California, and _Dasypterus ega panamensis_
in 1901 (p. 246) from Panama.

The larger of the two North American species was named _Lasiurus
intermedius_ in 1862 (p. 246) by H. Allen on the basis of material from
extreme northeastern Mexico. Another alleged species, _Dasypterus
floridanus_, was named in 1902 (p. 392) by Miller from Florida, but as
set forth below it is only a subspecies of _L. intermedius_, a species
that is seemingly limited to parts of the North American mainland and
Cuba.

A third species, _Atalapha egregia_, allegedly allied to the small
yellow bat, _L. ega_, was named in 1871 (p. 912) by Peters from Santa
Catarina, Brazil, but Handley (1960:473) thinks that _L. egregius_ is
allied instead to the red bats. The species _L. egregius_ has not been
studied in connection with the observations reported below.

Bats of the genus concerned were given the generic name _Nycteris_ by
Borkhausen in 1797 (p. 66), and the name _Lasiurus_ by Gray in 1831 (p.
38). For much of the latter part of the 19th century the generic name
_Atalapha_ proposed by Rafinesque in 1814 (p. 12) was used because it
antedated the name _Lasiurus_. In this period Harrison Allen (1894:137)
raised to generic rank the name _Dasypterus_ that had been proposed by
Peters in 1871 (p. 912) only as a subgenus for the yellow bats. Since
1894 the yellow bats ordinarily have borne the generic name
_Dasypterus_. The red bats and the hoary bat continued to be referred
to as of the genus _Atalapha_ until early in the 20th century when it
was decided that a European bat of another genus was technically the
basis for the name _Atalapha_. Thereupon _Lasiurus_ was again used in
the belief that it was the earliest available name for the bats
concerned. But in 1909 (p. 90) Miller showed that the name _Lasiurus_
was preoccupied by _Nycteris_ Borkhausen, 1797 (p. 66). From 1909 until
1914 in conformance with the Law of Priority _Nycteris_ was used for
the red bat and the hoary bat.

At this point it is desirable to digress and indicate why and how the
Law of Priority came into being. In the 19th century different
technical names were used for the same kind of animal depending on the
opinions of individual authors. For example, one author used name A
because it was most descriptive of the morphology of the animal,
another author used