Greater spear-nosed bat
| Greater spear-nosed bat | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Chiroptera |
| Family: | Phyllostomidae |
| Genus: | Phyllostomus |
| Species: | P. hastatus |
| Binomial name | |
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Phyllostomus hastatus (Pallas, 1767) |
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| Greater spear-nosed bat range | |
The greater spear-nosed bat (Phyllostomus hastatus) is a bat species of the family Phyllostomidae from South and Central America. It is one of the larger bats of this region and is omnivorous.
Phyllostomus hastatus lives in tropical regions of the Americas. The species ranges from Guatemala and Belize south to Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, northern Argentina and Brazil. It also occurs in Trinidad and Tobago and on Margarita Island (Venezuela). Although most commonly found around streams and other bodies of water, these bats are also present in drier areas. They inhabit both open and forested regions.
The greater spear-nosed bat has a body length of around 100–130 mm (3.9–5.1 in), with a wing span of 455 mm (17.9 in). Despite the large size, it is very light, weighing on average 81 g (2.9 oz). Its long, thick hair is dark brown, with a slight orange tinge on the ventral side. It has a well-developed nose shaped like a spear-head, which gives it its more common name. The ears are spread far apart and are smaller than in other phyllostomids. The lower lip has a distinctive V-shaped groove and many warts. Both sexes have a throat sac just above breast bone. That of the male is enlarged, while the female's is much smaller and simpler.
P. hastatus sometimes eats vertebrates, but much less so than other phyllostomids. It is omnivorous, most commonly feeding on fruit, pollen and insects. Vertebrates comprise a minor part of its diet. Norberg and Fenton (1988) speculate that this is due to its "higher aspect ratio and wing loading".P. hastatus has an extremely sensitive sense of smell. When foraging for food, it can locate hidden pieces of banana amongst the leaf litter on the forest floor.
P. hastatus has a broad bandwidth call that enables it to resolve distances almost as small as 4 mm. This implies that it can distinguish echoes as little as 20 microseconds apart.
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Wikipedia