Common Name: Moustached Bats, or Naked-backed Bats, and Ghost-faced Bats
Taxonomy: 2 genera and 8 species; Pteronotus (6 species), Mormoops (2 species)
Distribution: Mormoopids are strictly New World. Moustached bats range throughoutCentral and northern South America (Peru to Brazil). Ghost-faced bats range from southern US to Columbia, Ecuador, and Trinidad
Fossil Record: Pleistocene to Recent in North America and the West Indies and Recent in South America.
Size Range: Forearm length ranges from 35 - 65 mm
Characteristics:
The Mormoopids were recently given family status, formerly considered a subfamily of Phyllostimidae.
The family is generally restricted to tropical habitats below 3,000 m, found in wet tropical forests to drier, more arid climates.
Mormoopids lack a nose-leaf. Characteristically of the family, the lips have been expanded and ornamented with folds and flaps which form a funnel into the oral cavity. Short bristle like hairs surround the funnel and are though to act in orientating airflow toward the mouth. The nostril are incorporated into the expanded upper lip. The eyes are small, in contrast to large Phyllostomid eyes.
The wing membrane is attached in several places to the side of the body. The wing membrane is attached across the back of the Naked-backed bats, with short fur underneath. The tail is always present, with the posterior part of the tail protruding from the uropatagium. The tragus is very variable, from a simple sharp pointed structure to a complex tragus with secondary folds of skin which appear at right angles to main axis of the tragus.
Mormoopids tend to be cave or tunnel dwellers, often forming large gregarious colonies. Some Pteronotus can be found roosting in foliage.
The family is exclusively insectivorous.
(from the books "Bats - A Natural History" and from "Walker's Bats of the World")