Talk:List of fruit bats

What subfamilies are recognised by who?
I've noticed that this list has several tribes under subfamily Pteropodinae. But the article on Pteropodinae only includes the Tribe Pteropodini genera. The article Macroglossinae (Chiroptera) covers what seems to be the tribes Macroglossini and Notopterini. Consistent with this, the article for genus Notopteris places it in the subfamily Macroglossinae, not the trible Notopterini. The article Pteropodidae says it is divided into seven subfamilies, not the six in the list. Overall this list doesn't seem to match the other articles on wikipedia. I know that bat taxonomy is under revision, but don't know which is the more recent approach.  Jts1882 &#124; talk 14:32, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Well this article cites a 2011 study, and those articles don't actually have any references, so I'm banking on this article  User:Dunkleosteus77 &#124;push to talk 03:03, 2 December 2017 (UTC)
 * The problem is that the results of that 2011 study (Almeida et al, 2011) contradict the taxonomy presented, which is the traditional taxonomy of Bergman (1997). The citation is misleading because, although the paper does present the Bergman taxonomy for historical context (in table 1), it doesn't reflect the results of the study. As it stands this list article seems to be based on a twenty-year old taxonomy that is not supported by more recent studies.
 * Unfortunately, Almeida et al, 2011 don't present an alternative taxonomy, although they define six major clades and some subgroups that could be the basis of an alternative taxonomy, e.g. Macroglossinae as a subfamily. Some of the other wikipedia articles reflect these new results, but as you point out they don't cite the references. I'll see what I can find about any revised taxonomy.   Jts1882 &#124; talk 11:56, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

I've found some more recent references on fruitbat taxonomy. Two involve Almeida and Giannini from the 2011 article and a third is from an independent group focusing on African fruitbats. Almoden et al (2016) is a comprehensive phylogenetic study of bats and gives subfamily and tribe names to the clades first determined in Almeida et al (2011). They claim that the new results are consistent with Almeida et al (2011) and Almeida et al (2016). Their taxonomy is as follows:
 * Family Pteropodidae
 * Subfamily Cynopterinae,
 * Tribe Cynopterini (Megaerops, Ptenochirus, Cynopterus)
 * Tribe Balionycterini (Dyacopterus, Sphaerias, Otopteropus, Alionycteris, Haplonycteris, Aethalops, Penthetor, Chironax, Latidens, Balionycteris, Thoopterus)
 * Subfamily Rousettinae,
 * Tribe Scotonycterini (Casinycteris, Scotonycteris)
 * Tribe Eonycterini (Eonycteris)
 * Tribe Rousettini (Rousettus)
 * Tribe Stenonycterini (Stenonycteris)
 * Tribe Epomophorini (Hypsignathus, Epomops, Nanonycteris, Epomophorus, Micropteropus)
 * Tribe Myonycterini (Megaloglossus, Myonycteris)
 * Tribe Plerotini (Plerotes)
 * Subfamily Macroglossinae (Syconycteris, Macroglosssus; possibly Notopteris)
 * Subfamily Harpyionycterinae,
 * suggests division into two tribes but doesn't name them
 * Dobsonia, Aproteles (Dobsonini?)
 * Harpyionycteris, Boneia (Harpyionycterini?)
 * Subfamily Eidolinae (Eidolon)
 * Subfamily Nyctimeninae (Nyctimene)
 * Subfamily Pteropodinae (Mirimiri, Pteralopex, Desmalopex, Melonycteris, Styloctenium, Acerodon, Pteropus)
 * Hassanin et al (2016) focus on African fruit bats so don't include all bat groups in their analysis. They also remove the Macroglossines from the Pteropodinae and have a broad Rousettinae subfamily, which they divide into many tribes and subtribes. The main difference is the genera making up subfamily Harpyionycterinae in Almoden et al (2016) are included within subfamily Rousettinae as tribe Boneini.
 * No subfamilies and tribes were given in MSW3 because the molecular studies had failed to support the traditional subfamilies in Bergmans (1997) but had yet to provide a consistent new taxonomy. As a possible preview of the forthcomig MSW4 I note that the American Society of Mammologist's new Mammal Diversity Database follows Almoden et al (2016) in dividing Pterodoidae into seven subfamilies, with seven tribes in Rousettinae.
 * So should the list be changed accordingly? I can add the genera in each family and tribe to the list above if that would be helpful.  Jts1882 &#124; talk 16:15, 3 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I've added the genera above. Looking at the tables in the list they are organised as separate tables for subfamilies and tribes, so most of the needed changes are just changing headings and reogansising the sections. The position of the genera and species is largely unchanged.  Jts1882 &#124; talk 17:42, 3 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Sorry for coming back two-and-a-half months later. The above changes look good for the article, you can go ahead and add it if you'd like, or I can go do it if you want  User:Dunkleosteus77 &#124;push to talk 21:54, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
 * How familiar are you with the table structure? I'm prepared to have a go, but it will have to wait until I have more time so as to avoid mistakes with the table.  Jts1882 &#124; talk 12:05, 26 February 2018 (UTC)