Smooth-nosed free tails

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Smooth-nosed free tails
Emballonura semicaudata

Emballonura semicaudata

Systematics
Subclass : Higher mammals (Eutheria)
Superordinate : Laurasiatheria
Order : Bats (chiroptera)
Subordination : Yangochiroptera
Superfamily : Emballonuroidea
Family : Smooth-nosed free tails
Scientific name
Emballonuridae
Gervais , 1856

The smooth-nosed free-tails (Emballonuridae), also called sack-winged bats , are a family of bats . They are not closely related to the smooth noses (Vespertilionidae).

distribution

Smooth-nosed cantons are widespread in tropical regions around the world, they occur in Central and South America , Africa , the southern regions of Asia, as well as in New Guinea , Australia and some islands in the western Pacific . They live in rainforests, open woodlands, savannas and arid zones.

description

Smooth-nosed bats are small to very large bats, but in most cases they are rather small. The head body length varies from 4 cm to 15 cm and the weight from 3  g to 100 g. Except for the white American ghost bats ( Diclidurus ), they are gray-brown or black. Their body is relatively elongated, the head triangular when viewed from above, with a pointed muzzle. The widely spaced, mostly triangular ears are small to medium-sized, the eyes small but clearly visible. When sleeping, the ears are placed back on the head and neck. The nostrils are close together. There is usually no gender dimorphism . The fur is smooth and pliable, and does not usually extend to the long, narrow wings. In some species the back of the body is bare. The intermaxillary bones are mobile and not firmly attached to the maxillaria.

The name smooth-nosed cantilever tails suggests two features of this bat family: On the one hand, there is a smooth , simply built nose without a nosepiece. Second, this is a free tail. This is not completely surrounded by the uropatagium (the flight membrane between the hind legs), but only loosely connected to it on its underside, with the tip of the tail always protruding upwards. The name of the sac-winged bats comes from the sac-like invaginations on the upper side of the propatagium (neck membrane) that are present in many species, especially in the males, which secrete a red, strongly smelling secretion. These can also be reduced to a bare skin region or completely absent in females of some species. In the Saccopteryx genus, the pockets are regularly licked and actively filled with urine, saliva and genital secretions; the resulting scented cocktail, together with the singing flights of the males, plays an important role in courtship.

Way of life

Smooth-nosed cantons usually live together in groups that sleep in caves, crevices, houses and tree hollows and often go looking for food together. Their diet consists primarily of flying insects, which, like all bats, they track down by means of echolocation. In search flight, the smooth-nosed cantilever tails emit short sounds that have one or more frequency-modulated components in addition to a flat-modulated element. Sometimes they also eat fruit.

Systematics

The smooth-nosed free-tails form together with the slit noses (Nycteridae) the superfamily Emballonuroidea within the bats. They around 51 kinds in 13 kinds, which are divided into two subfamilies. The subfamily Emballonurinae is also divided into two tribes .

Smooth-nosed free tails

literature

  • Meredith Happold: Family Emballonuridae Sheat-Tailed Bats , page 418-421 in Meredith Happold and David Happold (eds.): Mammals of Africa Volume IV. Hedgehogs, Shrews and Bats. Bloomsbury, London, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4081-2254-9
  • Wilfried Westheide & Reinhard Rieger : Special Zoology Part 2: Vertebrae and Skull Animals , 2nd edition, Spectrum Akademischer Verlag Heidelberg • Berlin, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8274-2039-8

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d Happold (2013), page 418.
  2. Happold (2013), p. 420.
  3. ^ Westheide & Rieger (2010), page 597
  4. a b Westheide & Rieger (2010), page 605
  5. Happold (2013), page 419.
  6. Westheide & Rieger (2010), pp. 601–602.
  7. ^ Teeling, EC; Springer, M .; Madsen, O .; Bates, P .; O'Brien, S .; Murphy, W. (2005). A Molecular Phylogeny for Bats Illuminates Biogeography and the Fossil Record . Science. 307 (5709): 580-584. doi: 10.1126 / science.1105113
  8. Happold (2013), page 421.

Web links

Commons : Emballonuridae  - Collection of images, videos and audio files