This bat has been found in a group of small islands (Alu, Mono, and Shortland) about 30 miles south of Bougainville. Because of this proximity and because yet another subspecies of this species occurs northward of Bougainville, it is interesting that neither Troughton (1936) nor Pohle (1953) included the species in their faunal lists for Bougainville.
Andersen (1912:152) indicated that the M1 in _P. admiralitatum colonus_ is smaller than in _P. a. solomonis_, the subspecies found in islands to the southeast (4.4-4.5 and 5.2, respectively), but Sanborn (1931:13) studied specimens of these two subspecies that overlapped in size of M1.
1934. _Pteropus goweri_ Tate, Amer. Mus. Novit., 718:1, May 4, type from Gower (Ndai) Island.
1954. _Pteropus admiralitatum goweri_, Laurie and Hill, List of land mammals of New Guinea, Celebes and adjacent islands, p. 33, June 30.
_Remarks._--_Pteropus admiralitatum goweri_ was described from six specimens collected in 1930 by the Whitney South Sea Expedition (Tate, 1934:1). This subspecies closely resembles the other two subspecies of _P. admiralitatum_ (_colonus_ and _solomonis_) found in the Solomon Islands. Color and length of forearm (see key on p. 793) seem to be the only reliable criteria for distinguishing between these subspecies. The longitude of Gower Island, 160° 34' E, was incorrectly listed in Laurie and Hill (1954:152) as 159° 34' E.
1931. _Pteropus howensis_ Troughton, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales, 56:204, June 24, type from Lord Howe Islands (Ontong Java); 1950, Sanborn and Nicholson, Fieldiana:Zool., 31:329, August 31.
_Specimens examined_ (one male, three females, and two sex unknown; two embryos in alcohol).--Liuniuwu, Lord Howe Islands (Ontong Java) in August, USNM 278703-6, USNM 279715-6.
_Measurements._--Average and extreme measurements of one male and three females are as follows: Length of head and body, 185.2 (176-196); hind foot, 34.5 (33-36); ear, 21.5 (21-23); forearm not measured [broken in all specimens examined]. Cranial measurements of a male and a female are, respectively, as follows: Greatest length of skull, 55.3, 53.8; condylobasal length, 54.2, 52.8; palatal length, 26.7, 26.0; zygomatic breadth, 30.6, 29.9; breadth of braincase, 19.9, 19.2; breadth across first upper molars, 14.3, 14.3; length of maxillary tooth-row, 20.7, 19.6; length of mandibular tooth-row, 23.1, --.