Golden short-palate fruit bat
| Golden short-palate fruit bat | ||||||||||||
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| Casinycteris argynnis | ||||||||||||
| Thomas , 1910 |
The golden short- palate fruit bat ( Casinycteris argynnis ) is a small, so far little researched species of fruit bat that occurs in the central and northern Congo Basin .
features
Golden short-palate flying foxes are very small and reach a total length (tip of the snout to the end of the tail) of 5 to 5.6 cm (males) or 5.9 to 6.2 cm (females) and a wingspan of 28 to 38 cm. The animals are medium brown in color, the belly is a little lighter. The woolly fur also extends to the upper arms and over half of the forearms. The back hair is woolly and about 7 to 8 mm long and beige with a dark brown base and medium brown tips. The hair is shorter on the stomach. The flight membrane is brown, sometimes orange-brown, the fingers supporting the flight membrane are dark, their joints light yellow or light yellow-brown. Ears, nose and sometimes the lips are yellowish to yellowish brown. Characteristic of the species are white cheeks, a white spot behind the eyes, a white spot between the eyes, a white chin and sometimes white lips. Only two other African flying foxes have similar white head markings, the larger snake- toothed harlequin flying fox ( Casinycteris ophiodon ) and Zenker's harlequin flying fox ( Scotonycteris zenkeri ). Both are closely related to the golden short-palate fruit bat. The ears of the golden short-palate fruit bat are relatively long and rounded at the end. The lips are fleshy and can be stretched out. The tail is so short that it is not visible from the outside.
The skull is rounded, the muzzle short. The palatine bone is extremely reduced. The upper incisors are relatively short, the canines long and curved backwards.
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Way of life
The animals live in primary and secondary rainforests, in gallery forests , in regions where small rainforests alternate like a mosaic with savannahs and in swamp forests where there are only a few other fruit-eating bats. So far, they have rarely been detected, but they are probably more common in certain areas. Golden short-palate fruit bats fly relatively slowly and are very agile. Their diet has not yet been researched. Certain features of the skull morphology and dentition suggest that their diet differs from that of other fruit bats. The females are likely to have a single cub per birth.
literature
- Meredith Happold: Genus Casinycteris Short-Palated Fruit Bat, page 229-231 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