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Megabat

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iMegabats

Image:Kalong-drawing.jpg

Large flying fox, Pteropus vampyrus

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Chiroptera
Suborder:	Megachiroptera Dobson, 1875
Family:	Pteropodidae Gray, 1821

Subfamilies

Macroglossinae
Pteropodinae

Image:Bristol.zoo.livfruitbat.arp.jpg

Image:Pteropus conspicillatus.jpg

Megabats constitute the suborder Megachiroptera within the order Chiroptera (bats). They include the single family Pteropodidae. Often they are called fruit bats or Old World fruit bats.

While the microbats are distributed over all continents (excluding Antarctica), the megabats live only in tropical areas of Asia, Africa and Oceania.

Not all megabats are large: the smallest species is 6 cm (2 inches) long and thus smaller than some microbats. The large flying foxes are 40 cm (16 inches) long and have a wingspan of 150 cm (5 feet). These giants are almost 1 kg (2 pounds) in weight. Most megabats have large eyes enabling them to orient in the twilight and inside caves. The sense of smell is excellent. In contrast to the microbats the megabats do not use echolocation. One species is an exception, however - the Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus egyptiacus - which uses high pitched clicks to navigate in caves.

Megabats are frugivorous. They eat fruits or suck nectar from flowers. Often the fruits are squashed, and only the fruit juice is consumed. The teeth are adapted to bite through hard fruit skins. In fact, the megabats lack canine teeth all together (having molars instead) and many of the nectar-sucking bats have very small almost useless teeth. Large megabats have to land in order to eat the fruits, while the smaller species are able to hover with flapping wings in front of a flower or fruit.

All megabats help in the distribution of plants by carrying the fruits with them and spitting the seeds at other places. The nectar-sucking bats pollinate the visited plants. They have a long tongue, that can be inserted into the flower. The pollen is taken to the next blossom, which will be pollinated. This relationship between plants and bats is called chiropterophily. Examples are the baobabs of the genus Adansonia and the sausage tree (Kigelia).

Because of their large size and somewhat "spectral" appearance, megabats are sometimes used in horror movies to represent vampires or to lend an aura of spookiness. In reality, as noted, the bats of this group are frugivorous and not dangerous to human beings.

[edit] Classification

Some evidence has cast doubt on the close relationship between Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera, with the megabats being more closely related to primates, and the two groups of bat having evolved flight independently. However, most experts would disagree, and classify them as part of the same clade, Chiroptera.

The family Pteropodidae is divided into two subfamilies, 42 genera and 173 species. Here is a list of the genera:

Subfamily Macroglossinae