Old World fruit bat
| Megabats (fruit bats) Temporal range: Oligocene–Recent |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Large flying fox, Pteropus vampyrus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Chiroptera |
| Suborder: |
Megachiroptera or Yinpterochiroptera Dobson, 1875 |
| Family: |
Pteropodidae Gray, 1821 |
| Subfamilies | |
|
Nyctimeninae |
|
Nyctimeninae
Cynopterinae
Harpiyonycterinae
Macroglossinae
Pteropodinae
Rousettinae
Epomophorinae
Megabats constitute the suborder Megachiroptera, and its only family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera (bats). They are also called fruit bats, Old World fruit bats, or, especially the genera Acerodon and Pteropus, flying foxes. Fruit bats are restricted to the Old World in a tropical and subtropical distribution, ranging no further than the eastern Mediterranean and South Asia, and are absent from northwest Africa and southwest Australia. Compared to insectivorous bats, fruit bats are relatively large and, with some exceptions, do not navigate by echolocation. They are herbivores and rely on their keen senses of sight and smell to locate food.
Most fruit bats are larger than insectivorous bats or Microchiroptera, however there are a number of small fruit bats also. The smallest species is 6 cm (2.4 in) long and thus smaller than some microbats, for example, the Mauritian tomb bat. The largest attain a wingspan of 1.7 m (5.6 ft), weighing in at up to 1.6 kg (3.5 lb). Most fruit bats have large eyes, allowing them to orient themselves visually in twilight and inside caves and forests.
Their sense of smell is excellent. In contrast to the microbats, the fruit bats do not use echolocation (with one exception, the Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus egyptiacus, which uses high-pitched tongue clicks to navigate in caves).
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