Aru flying fox Aru flying fox The Aru flying fox ("Pteropus aruensis") is a Critically Endangered species of megabat found in the Aru Islands in Indonesia. It was described by Wilhelm Peters in 1867. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the black-bearded flying fox. The species is poorly known, and has not been encountered since the 19th century. It is classified as critically endangered by the IUCN and is listed on CITES appendix II. As the Pteropus genus is quite speciose, it is further divided into species groups. The Aru flying fox is placed in the "livingstonii" species group.Other members of this
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