Insular flying fox Insular flying fox The insular flying fox or Pacific flying fox ("Pteropus tonganus") is a species of flying fox in the family Pteropodidae. It is geographically widespread, the most widespread flying fox in the Pacific: it is found in American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa (where it is called "pe'a fanua, pe'a fai" and "taulaga"), the Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu. Archaeologists on an excavation site at Rurutu announced in 2006 some important fossil finds: The range of coloration in this bat species varies somewhat. Its back is described as black or seal
Andersen's flying fox was described as a new species in 1908 by Danish mammalogist Knud Andersen. The holotype had been collected by William Ruxton Davison and presented to Andersen by Allan Octavian Hume. There is taxonomic uncertainty regarding this species: some have published that it is likely synonymous with the Indian flying fox while other have published that it is synonymous with the large flying fox. Its species name ""intermedius"" is Latin for "intermediate;" Andersen may have chosen that name because he compared it to both the Indian flying fox and the large flying fox. Andersen wrote that it was "scarcely distinguishable" from