| Red fruit bat | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Chiroptera |
| Family: | Phyllostomidae |
| Genus: | Stenoderma E. Geoffroy, 1818 |
| Species: | S. rufum |
| Binomial name | |
| Stenoderma rufum Desmarest, 1820 | |
The red fruit bat or red fig-eating bat (Stenoderma rufum) is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae, in the monotypic genus Stenoderma. [2] It is found in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Red fruit bats can range from tan to dark brown in color and their wings can be dark brown to black with red or pinked colored arms and figures. The nose-leaf are erect and shaped like a lace with a tan coloration. [3] The ears pointed and go from light to dark brown, starting from the base of the ear and to the top of the ears. The eyes are small and oval shaped with brown iris and a circular pupils. Red fruit bats that are dark brown in color are the ones that have molted their juvenile fur to their adult fur. [3] Bats from Puerto Rico are a darker brown, Dresden Brown than the bats found on St. John, Buckthorn Brown. [3] Both adults and juveniles have darker coloration on the ventral side than on the dorsal side, and they have white spots on the sides of the neck near the base of the ear and at the wing joints. [3] [4] Sexual dimorphism is present among S. r. darioi, where the females are bigger than the males, on Puerto Rico and this does not appear in S. r. rufum on St. John. [3] [4] The S. r. darioi females are 67.8 mm in length on average, have a forearm length of about 49.7 mm, and their skull is 22.9 mm in length. [3] [4] S. r. rufum females are 65 mm long, the forearm is around 47.3 mm, and have a skull length of 22.1 mm, making them smaller than S. r. doraioi females. [4] Males of both species are the same size on average with a length of 61–65.5 mm, forearm length of 47.5-47.7 mm, a skull length about 22.3 mm, and males lack a baculum which is typical of all phyllostomatid bats. [4]
Three subspecies are recognised: [3]
Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests and is found on the islands of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, St. John and St. Thomas. As of June 10, 2004, a pregnant female was found on the island of St. Croix, showing that there is a breeding population on the island. [5] There are no morphological or habitat characteristics that put red fruit bats from St. Croix in the subspecies of S. rufum, but is put in S. r. rufum because they have a similar coloration. The female has a body length of 67 mm and a forearm length of 50.21 mm. Most species of Stenoderma rufum are found in the Luquillo National Forest. [5] This rain forest is located in the northeast part of Puerto Rico, this is a mountainous region that gets over 2,000 mm of rainfall annually. [6]
Red fruit bats are frugivores. They primarily feed on fruit like Cecropia schrebriana, Manilkara bidentata, and Prestoea montana. [6] [7] It has been shown that they can also survive on mangos, fruit nectars, and bananas, but they need to have the flesh of the fruit exposed for the animal to eat it. [3]
Red fruit bats are nocturnal. Most nocturnal animals tend to reduce their activity during the brighter levels of moonlight, because nocturnal predators can find prey easier when the moon is bright. Red fruit bats do not lack of nocturnal predators on Puerto Rico, this allows the bats to search for food or mates regardless of whether there is a full moon or a new moon. [6]
Little is known on the mating and reproduction of red fruit bats. Males tend to mate during the dry seasons rather than the rainy seasons. [7] Females will mate year round, and are polyestrus. [7] Seasons also affect the size of their embryos, with smaller embryos appearing more frequently during dry seasons rather than rainy seasons. [7] When pups are born they are covered in fur everywhere but the face, which is pink and hairless. Pups are born with their eyes open. [3] At birth they are 45 mm long with a forearm length of 29.4 mm and a wingspan of 201 mm. [3]
Geoffroy's tailless bat is a species of phyllostomid bat from the American tropics.
The pygmy fruit-eating bat is a bat of the family Phyllostomidae. The specific name phaeotis is of Greek derivation, coming from the word phaios meaning dusky, referring to their dusky gray coloration.
Tomes's sword-nosed bat, also known as the common sword-nosed bat is a bat species from South and Central America. It is also found in the Bahamas, but is known from only one specimen collected on the island of New Providence.
The Mauritian flying fox, also known as Greater Mascarene flying fox or Mauritius fruit bat is a large megabat species endemic to Mauritius and La Réunion.
The whistling coquí, Cochran's treefrog, or Cochran's robber frog is a species of frog native to Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the British Virgin Islands. This nocturnal insectivore is also referred to as the coquí pitito in Puerto Rico. Their distinctive song is a single, rising whistle, which is repeated and followed by three clicking sounds.
The Antillean fruit-eating bat is one of two leaf-nosed bat species belonging to the genus Brachyphylla. The species occurs in the Caribbean from Puerto Rico to St. Vincent and Barbados. Fossil specimens have also been recorded from New Providence, Bahamas.
The Guadeloupe big brown bat is a species of vesper bat. It is found only on the island of Guadeloupe. It is one of the eleven species of bat found on Guadeloupe, and one of three that are endemic.
Genoways's yellow bat is a species of vesper bat found only in Mexico. It is threatened by habitat loss. Due to its imperiled status, it is identified by the Alliance for Zero Extinction as a species in danger of imminent extinction.
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 Mauritian tomb bat is a species of sac-winged bat in the family Emballonuridae that is found in central and southern Africa and Madagascar. It was discovered in 1818 by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and is characterized by an all-white ventral surface, grizzled dorsal coloration, and conical face. It has exceptionally good eyesight, a trait which is common in old world bats and enables it to find roosting locations. It has adapted itself to a wide range of habitats including subarid scrub to semi-tropical savanna and can be found throughout much of Africa south of the Sahara, including many of the surrounding islands. They often seek out refuge in cool dry areas. Mauritian tomb bats help control pest populations, including insects that carry human diseases. These bats tend to be nocturnal hunters and their normal prey consists of moths, butterflies, and termites. Not prone to large-scale roosting, T. mauritianus is most often spotted on the sides of buildings or on the trunks of trees in groups of around five individuals. They breed on average once or twice a year and rear usually one pup, though twins are occasionally reported. They usually deposit their hungry offspring in areas where they can feed voraciously, most often in berry bushes. This species is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List due their wide distribution and stable population.
The fraternal fruit-eating bat is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae that is found in drier habitats in Ecuador and Peru. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the Jamaican fruit bat, but was raised to species level in 1978. The smallest species in the group of large Artibeus, it has a forearm length of 52–59 mm (2.0–2.3 in), a total length of 64–76 mm (2.5–3.0 in), and a weight of 30–55 g (1.1–1.9 oz).
The flat-faced fruit-eating bat is a South American species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the Jamaican fruit bat, but can be distinguished by its larger size, the presence of faint stripes on the face, and of a third molar tooth on each side of the upper jaw. Genetic analysis has also shown that the two species may not be closely related.
The greater short-nosed fruit bat, or short-nosed Indian fruit bat, is a species of megabat in the family Pteropodidae found in South and Southeast Asia.
The buffy flower bat is a species of bat in the leaf-nosed bat family, Phyllostomidae. It is found in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, and Jamaica.
Leach's single leaf bat, also known as Greater Antillean long-tongued bat, is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae. It is found in the southern Bahamas and in all the Greater Antilles. It forms large colonies, with up to a few hundred thousand individuals, and feeds on a relatively wide variety of food items including pollen, nectar, fruit and insects.
The Luzon fruit bat is a species of megabat in the family Pteropodidae. It is the only species within the genus Otopteropus and is endemic to the Philippines. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forest.
The lesser short-nosed fruit bat is a species of megabat within the family Pteropodidae. It is a small bat that lives in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It weighs between 21 and 32 grams, and measures 70 to 127 millimetres. It occurs in many types of habitat, but most frequently in disturbed forest, including lower montane forest and tropical lowland rain forest, plus gardens, mangroves, and vegetation on beaches.
The big-eared flying fox is a species of bat in the family Pteropodidae, larger bats who subsist largely on fruits. The species is distributed across a range in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and islands nearing the Cape York peninsula at the northeast of Australia, at elevations less than 500 metres and often in coastal mangroves.
The Mexican dog-faced bat is a bat species of the family Molossidae from Central America. It is found from Nayarit in Mexico to Costa Rica at elevations up to 1500 m. It was formerly considered a subspecies of C. greenhalli. It roosts in deciduous and evergreen forest, and is usually found near small bodies of water.
| Authority control databases: National |
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