Eastern bent-wing bat explained

The eastern bent-wing bat (Miniopterus fuliginosus) is a species of vesper bat in the family Miniopteridae. It is found in South Asia, Far-east Asia, the east Caucasus Mountains and also in Southeast Asian regions.

Description

They exhibit long and narrow wings, high wingspans and low wing loadings, which enable quick and long flights. Head and body length is 10to and the forearms are 4to long with a wingspan of 30to.[1]

Color varies from reddish brown to dark blackish brown above, with the underparts being lighter. The wing membrane is blackish brown. Fur is dense and soft, long above and short below. The ears are small and the cheeks are hairless below the eyes.

Zhang Jiang Lu et al. 2018 reported that echolocation frequencies were very similar among Eastern bent-wing bat colonies and variation in echolocation calls were likely due to variations in background noise instead of genetic drift.[2]

Taxonomy

This species was once considered a subspecies of the common bent-wing bat, but now it has been accepted that the eastern bent-winged bat and Australasian bent-winged bat are two separate species.[3]

Notes and References

  1. Norberg . U. M. . Rayner . J. M. V. . Ecological Morphology and Flight in Bats (Mammalia; Chiroptera): Wing Adaptations, Flight Performance, Foraging Strategy and Echolocation . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences . 1987 . 316 . 1179 . 335–427 . 10.1098/rstb.1987.0030 . 2396486 . 1987RSPTB.316..335N .
  2. Zhang . Chunmian . Jiang . Tinglei . Lu . Guanjun . Lin . Aiqing . Sun . Keping . Liu . Sen . Feng . Jiang . Geographical variation in the echolocation calls of bent-winged bats, Miniopterus fuliginosus . Zoology . December 2018 . 131 . 36–44 . 10.1016/j.zool.2018.05.005 . 29803625 . 2018Zool..131...36Z .
  3. Tian . Lanxiang . Liang . Bing . Maeda . Kishio . Metzner . Walter . Zhang . Shuyi . Molecular studies on the classification of Miniopterus schreibersii (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) inferred from mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences . Folia Zoologica . 53 . 3 . 2004 . 303–311 . .