Nyctimene (genus)

Nyctimene robin soni

The tube nose bats are a generic group within the family of fruit bats ( Pteropodidae ). The group includes about 15 species in two genera, Nyctimene and Paranyctimene. These animals live in Indonesia ( Sulawesi to the east ), in the southern Philippines, New Guinea, northeastern Australia and the Solomon Islands.

Description

As the name suggests, tube nose bats from other bats differ by the special development of the nostrils. These each end in about six millimeters long tubes whose exact function is not known. You probably serve to eject sounds; during the flight to give the animals a high whistling from him. A similar feature can be found in the unspecified related tube nose bats. The fur of these animals is gray -brown, the flight membranes, upper arms and ears are spotted striking yellow. With a body length of seven to 13 centimeters and a weight of 20 to 90 grams, they are among the smaller bats.

Way of life

Tube nose bats are nocturnal forest dwellers. During the day they sleep, wrapped in their wing membranes, upside down in the branches. It serves them their speckled pattern as camouflage. At night, they go in search of food. Their diet consists primarily of fruits, bite pieces out and take mainly the juices to himself, the rest they often spit out. They live mostly solitary. Little is known about reproduction. You can bring the whole year junior to the world, the gestation period is estimated to be about five months and breastfeeding at three to four months.

System

The closest relatives of the tube nose bats are the short-faced fruit bats, both groups together form the sister taxon of all other flying fox species.

The two genera Nyctimene Paranyctimene and differ only in the structure of teeth.

A total of 17 species are known:

• Nyctimene Aello lives in New Guinea and offshore islands.
• Nyctimene albiventer occurs in New Guinea and the Moluccas.
• Nyctimene cephalotes is distributed from Sulawesi to New Guinea.
• Nyctimene certans is also native to New Guinea.
• Nyctimene cyclotis also occurs only in New Guinea.
• Nyctimene draconilla also lives in New Guinea. The species status is disputed.
• Nyctimene keasti was described only in 1993 and lives in the Moluccas and the Lesser Sunda Islands.
• Nyctimene major living in New Guinea islands ( D' Entrecasteaux Islands and the Bismarck Archipelago ) and the Solomon Islands.
• Nyctimene malaitensis is known only from two Solomon Islands and is considered endangered.
• Nyctimene masalai is endemic to the island of New Ireland.
• Nyctimene minutus lives on Sulawesi and the Moluccas.
• Nyctimene rabori occurs only on the Philippine island of Negros and is listed by the IUCN as threatened with extinction.
• Nyctimene robin soni lives in the Australian region of Queensland.
• Nyctimene sanctacrucis is only known from the Santa Cruz Islands. The species was last sighted in 1907 and is considered extinct.
• Nyctimene vizcaccia is disseminated from the Bismarck Archipelago to the Solomon Islands.
• Paranyctimene raptor is found only in New Guinea.
• Paranyctimene tenax was not described until 2001. The species also lives in New Guinea.

Note

The classification of bats is largely based on the phylogenetic analysis of Kate E. Jones et al: A Phylogenetic Supertree of Bats. The authors use for the taxa no rank in the classical sense. The name of this group as a tribe with the suffix -ini is therefore arbitrary, sometimes you find this taxon as Nyctimeninae or Nyctimenina.