Tube-nosed bats
| Tube-nosed bats | ||||||||||||
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Nyctimene robinsoni |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Nyctimenini | ||||||||||||
| Miller , 1907 |
The nyctimene are a generic group within the family of flying foxes (Pteropodidae). The group includes 18 species in two genera, Nyctimene and Paranyctimene . These animals live in Indonesia (from Sulawesi to the east), on the southern Philippines , New Guinea , northeastern Australia and on the Solomon Islands .
description
As the name suggests, tube-nosed batfish differ from other flying foxes in the special development of their nostrils. Each of these ends in tubes about six millimeters long, the exact function of which is not known. They are presumably used to emit sounds; During the flight the animals emit high-pitched whistling sounds. A similar feature can be found in the long-nosed bats, which are not closely related . The fur of these animals is gray-brown in color, the flight membranes , the upper arms and the ears are strikingly dotted with yellow. With a head body length of seven to 13 centimeters and a weight of 20 to 90 grams, they are among the smaller flying foxes.
Way of life
Tube-nose batons are nocturnal forest dwellers. During the day they sleep, wrapped in their skins, head down in the branches. Their spotted pattern serves as a camouflage for them. At night they go in search of food. Their food consists primarily of fruits, they bite pieces out and mainly ingest the juices, they often spit out the rest. They live mainly solitary. Little is known about reproduction. You can give birth all year round, the gestation period is estimated at around five months and the lactation period at three to four months.
Systematics
The closest relatives of the tube- nosed fruit bat are the short-nosed fruit bat , both groups together form the sister taxon of all other types of fruit bat.
The two genera Nyctimene and Paranyctimene differ only in the structure of the teeth.
A total of 18 species are known:
- Nyctimene aello lives in New Guinea and offshore islands.
- Nyctimene albiventer occurs in New Guinea and the Moluccas.
- Nyctimene cephalotes is distributed from Sulawesi to New Guinea.
- Nyctimene certans is also native to New Guinea.
- Nyctimene cyclotis also only occurs in New Guinea.
- Nyctimene draconilla also lives in New Guinea. The species status is controversial.
- Nyctimene keasti was only described in 1993 and lives on the Moluccas and the Lesser Sunda Islands.
- Nyctimene major lives on islands off New Guinea (D'Entrecasteaux Islands and Bismarck Archipelago) as well as on the Solomon Islands.
- Nyctimene malaitensis is only known from two Solomon Islands and is considered endangered.
- Nyctimene masalai is endemic to the island of New Ireland.
- Nyctimene minutus lives on Sulawesi and the Moluccas.
- Nyctimene rabori occurs only on the Philippine island of Negros and is listed as critically endangeredby the IUCN .
- Nyctimene robinsoni lives in the Australian region of Queensland.
- Nyctimene sanctacrucis is only known from the Santa Cruz Islands . The species was last sighted in 1907 and is considered extinct.
- Nyctimene vizcaccia is common from the Bismarck Archipelago to the Solomon Islands.
- Nyctimene wrightae occurs only in New Guinea.
- Paranyctimene raptor is only found in New Guinea.
- Paranyctimene tenax was not described until 2001. The species also lives in New Guinea.
annotation
The systematics of the fruit bats is largely based on the phylogenetic study of Kate E. Jones et al. a .: A Phylogenetic Supertree of Bats . The authors do not use a rank in the classical sense for the taxa . The name of this group as a tribe with the ending -ini is therefore chosen arbitrarily, sometimes this taxon is also found as Nyctimeninae or Nyctimenina.
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
- Don E. Wilson DeeAnn M. Reeder (Ed.): Mammal Species of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
swell
- ↑ Nancy Irwin. 2017. A New Tube-nosed Fruit Bat from New Guinea, Nyctimene wrightae sp. nov., A Re-diagnosis of N. certans and N. cyclotis (Pteropodidae: Chiroptera), and A Review of their Conservation Status. Records of the Australian Museum. 69 (2): 73-100. DOI: 10.3853 / j.2201-4349.69.2017.1654
- ↑ Kate E. Jones, Andy Purvis, Ann MacLarnon, Olaf R. Bininda-Emonds, Nancy B. Simmons: A phylogenetic supertree of the bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) . In: Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society . tape 77 , no. 2 , 2002, p. 223-259 , doi : 10.1017 / S1464793101005899 ( molekularesystematik.uni-oldenburg.de [PDF; 5.2 MB ; accessed on May 15, 2018]).