Common Name: False Vampire Bats, Yellow-winged Bats
Taxonomy: Infraorder Yinochiroptera, Superfamily Rhinolophoidea, 4 genera, 5 species
Distribution: Tropical areas of East Africa, and south-central and south-eastern Asia including Indonesia, the Philippines, and Australia
Fossil Record: Early Oligocene to Pliocene in Europe, early Oligocene to recent in Africa, Pleistocene to recent in Asia, mid-Miocene to recent in Australia
Size Range: Head - body length 65 - 140 mm; forearm 50 - 115 mm; 25 to almost 130 g
Characteristics:
Australian species Macroderma gigas is the largest Microchiropteran species next to Vampyrum spectrum
Large ears connected across the forehead by a ridge of skin, divided tragus. Large eyes, with large erect nose-leaf. Broad wings - not quick fliers but agile and manoeuvrable, but with primitive shoulder and elbow joints. Tail is short or absent but uropatagium is fairly well developed. No upper incisors. Upper canines project noticeably forward
Occur in tropical forests or savannahs, often near water, usually solitary.
Three species are carnivorous and two are mostly insectivorous. The carnivorous species have been known to feed on other bats, frogs, birds, lizards, fish, rodents, and large insects. Both insectivorous species have unique foraging strategies: L. frons has flycatcher-like foraging style and C. cor uses a sedentary, close-to-the-ground scanning technique. Do not feed on blood.
May hunt using sight, sound, and echolocation. Echolocation - low-intensity, short, broadband
Genera Megaderma, Cardioderma, and Macroderma roost in caves, rock crevices, buildings and hollow trees; Genus Lavia roosts in trees and bushes
Colour - L. frons has yellow wings (known as the yellow-winged bat), M. gigas is pale lacking in pigmentation (known as Australian Ghost Bat)
(from the books "Bats - A Natural History" and from "Walker's Bats of the World")