Long-legged bat

For the North American species sometimes known as long-legged bat, see Long-legged myotis.
Long-legged bat
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Phyllostomidae
Genus: Macrophyllum
Gray, 1838
Species: M. macrophyllum
Binomial name
Macrophyllum macrophyllum
Schinz, 1821

The long-legged bat (Macrophyllum macrophyllum) is a bat species from South and Central America. It is monotypic in its genus.[2]

It hunts close over the water surfaces of lakes and slowly flowing streams, where it seizes insects right above or directly off the surface in a manner similar to Noctilio leporinus and Myotis daubentoni. This is an interesting example of convergent evolution, which may imply just how valuable a habitat the water surface is to insectivorous bats.

The sound emission in contrast is quite different from other water-hunting bats. M. macrophyllum has a very prominent noseleaf, and it emits the echolocation sounds through the nostrils. The time frequency characteristics of the sounds are almost identical to those of Micronycteris microtis: short (1-2 ms) multiharmonic FM sweeps with most energy in the second harmonic between 95 and 75 kHz. However, the sounds resemble those of a number of other phyllostomid bats, including Micronycteris microtis, but new results indicate that the intensity is significantly higher.

References

  1. Rodriguez, B. & Pineda, W. (2008). "Macrophyllum macrophyllum". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 2013-10-09.
  2. Simmons, N.B. (2005). "Order Chiroptera". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 406. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
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