They may be micro, but these bats do it all and they do it everywhere. This is a Mexican long-tongued bat. (Photo by Ken Bosma)
The microbats may be in general much smaller than the megabats, but what they lack in size they more than make up for in numbers. Simply put, there are an awful lot of them. They are found everywhere in the world, often in enormous numbers, and play a critical role in the control of insect populations.
However, size is not one of the distinguishing characteristics between the two groups of bats, as we have learned before. The biggest difference, though there is an exception, is that microbats use echolocation to “see” in complete darkness, while megabats do not (except for the Egyptian fruit bat, which is the noted exception). There are a few other small differences, but the only other interesting one is that microbats are not furry like most megabats are. Instead, microbats have stiff guard hairs, or almost completely lack hair altogether.
While some few microbats will eat fruit and nectar, and while still fewer eat fish or feast on the blood of living animals, the vast majority of microbats eat insects. This is where echolocation comes in handy. Many insects are active at dusk, which is when microbats swoop out of their roosts to devour them, and echolocation lets them locate their prey with little or even no light to see by. Since they have little need for them, most microbats have very under-developed eyes, though none are truly blind.
Otherwise microbats get along much the same as megabats do, flying via the same mechanism and roosting in dark places during the day, often in caves or tree hollows or unused spaces in human buildings, or really anywhere the sun don’t shine.
Well, no, not THAT place the sun don't shine. You couldn't even fit this colony of pallid bats in there. (Photo by Geoff Gallice)
There are quite a few distinct microbat families, mostly named for a defining physical characteristic. We will look at some of the more interesting individual bat types, but we won’t be examining every single family, so a brief overview of the microbat family tree might be of interest to you here.
There are 17 microbat families, which if you are keeping track is the largest number of families in one group that we’ve seen so far.
1. The sac-winged bats, of which there are 51 species, live in tropical areas. They get their name from sac-shaped glands in their wings, which release pheromones to attract mates. They don’t mind light as much as many other bats do. This family is home to the ghost bats, which are entirely white.
2. The mouse-tailed bats, of which there are five species, found in northern Africa and southern Asia. Unlike many other bats, their wings are not connected to their tails, and instead hang free, thin, and mouse-like, almost as long as the entire rest of the bat. In Egypt these bats are known to roost inside the pyramids. They live in groups of at least a thousand bats.
3. Owning a family all to itself is the Kitti’s hog-nosed bat, also called the bumblebee bat. It is the world’s smallest bat, only about an inch long, and is one of the world’s two smallest mammals. It lives in southeast Asia.
4. There are about 70 species of horseshoe bats, so-named because their noses look sort of like tiny horseshoes, and they use this strange nose to help with echolocation. They live in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.
5. The slit-faced bats have 16 members, found in Africa and southeast Asia. Their faces have a long slit running down the middle, right between the eyes, and they rely more on their ears and less on their echolocation compare to other microbats.
6. There are five species of false vampire bats, found in Africa, southern Asia, and Australia. They have no tail and look sort of like vampire bats, but they eat only insects and small scurrying critters.
7. The vesper bats, also called the evening bats, boast a remarkable 440 species, which is almost ten percent of all mammal species right there. These are the classic small bats, living in caves and emerging to eat insects, though some eat fish or small birds. There are big vesper bats and small vesper bats, and some groups roost in numbers of up to a million.
8. There are about 100 species of free-tailed bats, most of which are excellent at flying and are able to catch insects in full flight. They are found everywhere except Antarctica. They get their name because their tail is not fully connected to their wings, but instead can pull the wings into different shapes for better flying abilities. Some species in this family roost in enormous colonies of up to 50 million bats in a single cave.
9. The pallid bats are not well classified, but there are about 14 of them. They have large eyes, large ears, and pale hair. They are notable for being good at controlling their internal temperature.
10. The 11 species of funnel-eared bats are found in central and South America. As you would expect, they have broad funnel-shaped ears, though the bats themselves are quite small.
11. There are only two species of sucker-footed bats, both found in Madagascar. Like much on that island, not a great deal is known about them, but they have small suction cups on their wrists and ankles at they use to attach themselves to smooth surfaces for roosting. Isn’t that weird?
12. The disk-winged bats are only four members strong, found in central and South America. They also have small suction cups on their limbs, though here they are called disks for naming purposes.
13. There are two species of smokey bats that live in central and South America. They have very small, useless thumbs and funnel-shaped ears.
14. There are only two bulldog bats, also called the fisherman bats, and we will look at them in more detail soon. They live in central and South America, and the larger of the two catches fish from the water.
15. Only one type of New Zealand short-tailed bat remains. Found on that eponymous island, they spend most of their time on the ground instead of flying, and have claws adapted for digging and climbing. They eat whatever they can get their long tongues on.
16. There are ten ghost-faced bats, which have strange faces with leaf-like projections on their lips. They live in both North and South America.
17. The leaf-nosed bats are found in central and South America, and there are 192 species, including the infamous vampire bat, on which more is soon to come. They have large noses.
This fringe-lipped bat is part of the leaf-nosed bat family, and has a face only a mother could love. (Photo by Felineora)
The Book of Beasts 