Leaf-nosed bat
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![Macrotus waterhousii, Cartwright Cave, Long Island [sic], Bahamas. Taken by Matti Mero, March 2006](../../../m/a/c/Image%7EMacrotus_waterhousii_-_Cartwright_Cave_-_Long_Island_%286%29.jpg.jpg_04de.html) Macrotus waterhousii, Cartwright Cave, Long Island [sic], Bahamas. Taken by Matti Mero, March 2006
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![Macrotus waterhousii, Cartwright Cave, Long Island [sic], Bahamas. Taken by Matti Mero, March 2006.](../../../m/a/c/Image%7EMacrotus_waterhousii_-_Cartwright_Cave_-_Long_Island_%284%29.jpg.jpg_23d3.html)
![Macrotus waterhousii, Cartwright Cave, Long Island [sic], Bahamas. Taken by Matti Mero, March 2006.](../../../m/a/c/Image%7EMacrotus_waterhousii_-_Cartwright_Cave_-_Long_Island_%282%29.jpg.jpg_0c2b.html)
The Leaf-nosed bats, family Phyllostomidae, are ecologically the most varied and diverse group within the whole order Chiroptera. Phyllostomid bats include within their number true predatory species that take vertebrate prey including small Dove -sized birds in the case of the False Vampire, Vampyrum spectrum, the largest bat in the Americas. Members of this family have evolved to utilize food groups such as fruit, nectar, pollen, insects, frogs, other bats and small vertebrates, and even blood.
The family gets its name from the often large, lance shaped nose projection used to direct their sonar, though some of the nectar/pollen feeders have greatly reduced it. Because these bats echolocate nasally, this "nose-leaf" is thought to serve some role in modifying and directing the echolocation call.
There are 148 species within 48 genera which are listed below.
The representative genera:
- Ametrida
- Anoura (Geoffroy's Long-nosed Bats)
- Ardops (Tree Bat)
- Ariteus (Jamaican Fig-eating Bat)
- Artibeus (Neotropical Fruit Bats)
- Brachyphylla
- Carollia (Short-tailed Leaf-nosed Bats)
- Centurio (Wrinkle-faced Bat, Or Lattice-winged Bat)
- Chiroderma (Big-eyed Bats, Or White-lined Bats)
- Choeroniscus
- Choeronycteris (Mexican Long-nosed Bat, Or Hog-nosed Bat)
- Chrotopterus (Peters's Woolly False Vampire Bat)
- Desmodus (Common Vampire Bat)
- Diaemus (White-winged Vampire Bat)
- Diphylla (Hairy-legged Vampire Bat)
- Ectophylla (White Bat)
- Erophylla (Brown Flower Bats)
- Glossophaga
- Hylonycteris (Underwood's Long-tongued Bat)
- Leptonycteris (Saussure's Long-nosed Bats)
- Lichonycteris
- Lionycteris
- Lonchophylla
- Lonchorhina (Sword-nosed Bats)
- Macrophyllum (Long-legged Bat)
- Macrotus (Big-eared Bats)
- Micronycteris (Little Big-eared Bats)
- Mimon (Gray's Spear-nosed Bats)
- Monophyllus
- Musonycteris (Banana Bat, Or Colima Long-nosed Bat)
- Phylloderma (Peters's Spear-nosed Bat)
- Phyllonycteris (Jamaican Flower Bat)
- Phyllops (Falcate-winged Bats)
- Phyllostomus (Spear-nosed Bats)
- Platalina
- Pygoderma (Ipanema Bat)
- Rhinophylla
- Scleronycteris
- Sphaeronycteris
- Stenoderma (Red Fruit Bat)
- Sturnira (Yellow-shouldered Bats, Or American Epauleted Bats)
- Tonatia (Round-eared Bats)
- Trachops (Frog-eating Bat)
- Uroderma (Tent-building Bats)
- Vampyressa (Yellow-eared Bats)
- Vampyrodes (Great Stripe-faced Bat)
- Vampyrops (White-lined Bats)
- Vampyrum (Linnaeus's False Vampire Bat, Or Spectral Vampire)
