| Little bent-wing bat | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Roosting | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Chiroptera |
| Family: | Miniopteridae |
| Genus: | Miniopterus |
| Species: | M. australis |
| Binomial name | |
| Miniopterus australis | |
 | |
The little bent-wing bat or little long-fingered bat (Miniopterus australis) is a species of vesper bat in the family Miniopteridae. It is found in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vanuatu.
The species was first described by Robert Tomes in his 1858 monograph of the genus. Tomes distinguished the new species with a comparison to Miniopterus blepotis , in details of morphology and fur, and with standardised measurements using the breadth of the forearm; M. bleopotis was assigned in the broadly dispersed Miniopterus schreibersi species complex. [2] The type locality is named as Lifu in the Loyalty Islands, a province of New Caledonia. [3] Tomes assigned the specific epithet australis when he first regarded the population as endemic to Australia, but realised the series of specimens he assembled for his revision included those collected in Timor and presumed they also occurred at other islands of the regions. While recognising this as a misnomer, Tomes noted he had already applied this name in museum collections prior to publication and conserved his first choice to avoid any subsequent confusion. [2]
The author also noted a specimen from the Leyden Museum in his monograph, previously exhibited at that institution with the name Vespertilio tibialis but did not appear in a formal description. [2] The taxonomic history of this species and its infraspecific arrangement was complicated by uncertainty regarding the sources of specimens, clarified in part by James E. Hill's monograph on the genus, [4] then a statistical analysis of characters using a large sample of specimens by Darrell Kitchener and A, Suyanto in 2002 that also determined type locations for three subspecies and other undiagnosed specimens. [5]
Following these revisions, three subspecies were recognised: [3]
Revisions in the late twentieth century recognised other named taxa as subspecies, but subsequent revisions saw cause for elevation to species status, namely Miniopterus paululus , to which the subspecific name witkampi also refers, and Miniopterus shortridgei . [3]
The conservation status of the species was evaluated most recently in 2021 as "least concern", and the population trend was assumed to be stable. Misattribution between this and other species of Miniopterus in Indonesia, the Philippines and New Guinea islands has led to taxonomic uncertainty and therefore doubt on any population's trajectory. The broad distribution range is presumed to include the protection afforded by conservation areas. [1]
Gould's long-eared bat is a microbat found in southern regions of Australia. It occurs in eastern Australia, from Queensland to Victoria, and in a smaller isolated range in the south-west of Western Australia.
The eastern broad-nosed bat or Orion broad-nosed bat is a species of vespertilionid bat. It is found only in Australia, east of the Great Dividing Range, from about Rockhampton to Melbourne, with a small isolated population on the Atherton Tablelands.
The Manavi long-fingered bat is a bat in the genus Miniopterus that occurs in east-central Madagascar. First described in 1906, this species was later included in the mainland African M. minor. A 1995 revision united populations of small Miniopterus from Madagascar and the Comoros as M. manavi, but molecular and morphological studies in 2008 and 2009 showed that this concept of M. manavi in fact included five different species. M. manavi itself was restricted to a few locations in the eastern Central Highlands and populations in the Comoros and northern and western Madagascar were allocated to different species.
The common bent-wing bat, also known as the Schreibers's long-fingered bat or Schreibers's bat, is a species of insectivorous bat. They appear to have dispersed from a subtropical origin and distributed throughout the southern Palearctic, Ethiopic, Oriental, and Australian regions. In Europe, it is present in the southern half on the continent from Iberia to the Caucasus, with the largest populations found in the warmer Mediterranean area. The common and scientific names honor Carl Franz Anton Ritter von Schreibers.
The inland forest bat is a vesper bat that occurs in central and arid regions in Australia. They were first described in 1987, published in a review of poorly surveyed microbat populations. A tiny flying mammal, it occupies small cavities in trees and buildings while roosting. The nocturnal activity is foraging for insects, typically moths.
The Papuan sheath-tailed bat is a species of bat in the family Emballonuridae which occurs at the Cape York Peninsula and New Guinea. The poorly known species hunts in open forests for night flying insects.
Taphozous is a genus of the family Emballonuridae. The wide distribution of the genus includes several regions of Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Africa. Taphozous comes from the Greek τάφος, meaning "a tomb". The common names for species include variants on sac-winged, sheathtail, or tomb bats.
The common sheathtail bat, is a bat in the family Emballonuridae, occurring in northern Australia.
Hill's sheath-tailed bat is a bat of the family Emballonuridae. They are found in the deserts of central Australia.
The fawn leaf-nosed bat is a species of bat in the family Hipposideridae found in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vanuatu.
The Bougainville monkey-faced bat or Bougainville flying monkey is a megabat endemic to Bougainville Island of Papua New Guinea and Choiseul Island of the Solomon Islands in Melanesia. It inhabits mature forests in upland areas, within the Autonomous Region of Bougainville and Bougouriba Province.
Miniopterus, known as the bent-winged or long winged bats, is the sole genus of the family Miniopteridae. They are small flying insectivorous mammals, micro-bats of the order Chiroptera, with wings over twice the length of the body. The genus had been placed in its own subfamily among the vespertilionid bats, as Miniopterinae, but is now classified as its own family.
Nyctophilus is a genus of the vespertilionids or vesper bats. They are often termed Australian big-eared bats or long-eared bats, as the length of their ears often greatly exceeds that of the head. This genus occurs in the New Guinean-Australian region.
Keast's tube-nosed fruit bat is a species of megabat in the family Pteropodidae found in Babar, Tanimbar, and the Kai Islands. It was named after Colin Keast.
Miniopterus griveaudi is a bat in the genus Miniopterus found on Grande Comore and Anjouan in the Comoros and in northern and western Madagascar. First described in 1959 from Grande Comore as a subspecies of the mainland African M. minor, it was later placed with the Malagasy M. manavi. However, morphological and molecular studies published in 2008 and 2009 indicated that M. manavi as then defined contained five distinct, unrelated species, and M. griveaudi was redefined as a species occurring on both Madagascar and the Comoros.
The Hispaniolan greater funnel-eared bat is a funnel-eared bat species endemic to the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. First described in 1902, it has a complex taxonomic history, with some authors identifying multiple subspecies, now recognised as the separate species Natalus primus and Natalus jamaicensis, and others considering Natalus major to be itself a subspecies of Natalus stramineus. It lives primarily in caves and feeds on insects.
Ozimops kitcheneri, the south-western free-tailed bat, is a species of molossid bat found in Southwest Australia. A small flying mammal, it forages in forests and woodlands for insects.
The Javanese long-fingered bat is a species of bat from the Miniopterus genus native to Indonesia. A common misconception was that Miniopterus blepotis belonged to the M. schreibersii subspecies. M. blepotis was recognized as a distinct species after the Schreibersii complex was divided. This is backed up by New Guinean mtDNA sequence data that is ascribed to M. blepotis. Whether it is a complex made up of multiple species is unknown.
