The Leaf-nosed bats, family Phyllostomidae are by far the most varied and diverse within the whole order Chiroptera and count 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.
Within the group, species have evolved to utilize food groups such as fruit, nectar, pollen, insects, frogs, other bats and small vertebrates, and closely allied families that feed on fish Noctilionidae and the three highly specialised species that feed on 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.
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)
Bats also pollinate bananas, avocados, dates, figs, mangos, and cashews, and their contribution to commercial agriculture through natural insect control is worth millions of dollars annually.
Tuttle says, "Bats suffer from habitat loss and environmental pollution, but the primary cause of their decline is destruction by humans acting out of fear and ignorance." Some bats gather in large maternity colonies or hibernate together in winter, and these assemblies are especially vulnerable to disturbance.
Bat populations at Carlsbad declined during the middle of the last century, in part, because of poisoning from DDT, a widely used agricultural pesticide that accumulated in the bats' brain and body tissues.
Wherever bats occur, they are masters of their domains, able to navigate in the pitch darkness of deep caverns and adapted for survival in a nocturnal aerial niche like no other mammals.
The diversity of leaf-nosed bats increases with proximity to the equator.
Baby bats are born rump first (breech birth) while the mother hangs from her thumbs in a head-up position and catches the baby in her tail membrane.
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