Don E. Wilson;Russell A. Mittermeier
Megadermatidae
Sign in to saveMegadermatidae, or false vampire bats, are a family of bats found from central Africa, eastwards through southern Asia, and into Australia. They are relatively large bats, ranging from 6.5 cm to 14 cm in head-body length. They have large eyes, very large ears and a prominent nose-leaf. They have a wide membrane between the hind legs, or uropatagium, but no tail. Many species are a drab brown, but some are white, bluish-grey or even olive-green, helping to camouflage them against their preferred roosting environments.
Species
FAMILY
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassMammalia
- OrderChiroptera
- FamilyMegadermatidae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 89
- Family
- Megadermatidae
- Collections
- ANWC, NMV, WAM, AM
- Recorded in
- Lao People’S Democratic Republic, Indonesia, India, Malaysia
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
8 sectionsContents
- Description
- Biology and ecology
- Systematics
- Fossil record
- Conservation
- Classification
- References
- External links
Megadermatidae, or false vampire bats, are a family of bats found from central Africa, eastwards through southern Asia, and into Australia. They are relatively large bats, ranging from 6.5 cm to 14 cm in head-body length. They have large eyes, very large ears and a prominent nose-leaf. They have a wide membrane between the hind legs, or uropatagium, but no tail. Many species are a drab brown, but some are white, bluish-grey or even olive-green, helping to camouflage them against their preferred roosting environments.
They are primarily insectivorous, but will also eat a wide range of small vertebrates.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Megadermatidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.