Mormoopidae

Last updated

Mormoopidae
Temporal range: Oligocene to Recent
Mormoops blainvillii.jpg
Antillean ghost-faced bat's (Mormoops blainvillii) face by Ernst Haeckel (1904)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Superfamily: Noctilionoidea
Family: Mormoopidae
Saussure, 1860
Type genus
Mormoops
Leach, 1821
Genera

Mormoops
Pteronotus
† Koopmanycteris

The family Mormoopidae contains bats known generally as mustached bats, ghost-faced bats, and naked-backed bats. They are found in the Americas from the Southwestern United States to Southeastern Brazil.

They are distinguished by the presence of a leaf-like projection from their lips, instead of the nose-leaf found in many other bat species. In some species, the wing membranes join over the animal's back, making it appear hairless. The tail projects only a short distance beyond the membrane that stretches between the hind legs. They are brownish in colour, with short, dense fur. [1] Their dental formula is:

Dentition
2.1.2.3
2.1.3.3

Mormoopid bats roost in caves and tunnels in huge colonies that may include hundreds of thousands of members, producing enough guano to allow commercial mining. They do not hibernate as some other bats do since they live in the tropics. They feed on insects found close to, or on, bodies of water. [1]

Classification

The family consists of two genera, containing around 13 species.[ citation needed ]

FAMILY MORMOOPIDAE

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big naked-backed bat</span> Species of bat

The big naked-backed bat, is a bat species from South and Central America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wagner's mustached bat</span> Species of bat

Wagner's mustached bat is a bat species from South and Central America. It is one of the few New World bats species known to perform Doppler shift compensation behavior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Davy's naked-backed bat</span> Species of bat

Davy's (lesser) naked-backed bat is a small, insect-eating, cave-dwelling bat of the Family Mormoopidae. It is found throughout South and Central America, including Trinidad, but not Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, or French Guiana. Specimens of this bat had been found infected with rabies in Trinidad during the height of that island's vampire-bat-transmitted rabies epidemic of the early half of the 20th century, but not in recent times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antillean ghost-faced bat</span> Species of mammal

The Antillean ghost-faced bat is a species of bat in the family Mormoopidae. It is found in the Greater Antilles: Cuba, Hispaniola Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.

The sooty mustached bat is a species of bat in the family Mormoopidae. It is found in throughout the Greater Antilles, in Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pristine mustached bat</span> Extinct species of bat

The pristine mustached bat is an extinct Late Quaternary species of bat in the endemic Neotropical family Mormoopidae. It was distributed in Cuba and possibly Florida.

The giant ghost-faced bat is a prehistoric species of bat that was endemic to the Caribbean. It is only known from fragmental humerus remains, which physically resemble those of Mormoops megalophylla but are larger in size.

The Paraguana moustached bat occurs only on the Paraguaná Peninsula of Venezuela. The entire population uses three caves, one of which is subject to human vandalism. Their total range is less than 400 km2 (150 sq mi). In 2008, the caves where the bat is found were protected by the creation of the Cuevas de Paraguaná Wildlife Sanctuary–the first wildlife sanctuary in Venezuela.

References

  1. 1 2 Macdonald, D., ed. (1984). The Encyclopedia of Mammals . New York: Facts on File. p.  805. ISBN   0-87196-871-1.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.