''Anoura'' is a genus of

leaf-nosed bat The New World leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) are found from southern North America to South America, specifically from the Southwest United States to northern Argentina. They are ecologically the most varied and diverse family within the orde ...

s from

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

. ''Anoura'' members lack or have a short tail, and are nectarivorous bats of small to medium size among the Phyllostomidae.

Etymology

The genus ''Anoura'' was described in 1838 by British zoologist

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoology, zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray ...

. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

for the genus was the

Geoffroy's tailless bat Geoffroy's tailless bat (''Anoura geoffroyi'') is a species of phyllostomid bat from the American tropics. Description Geoffroy's tailless bat is a medium-sized bat, measuring around in total length and weighing . It has dark to dull brown fur ...

, ''Anoura geoffroyi''. The etymology of the genus name ''Anoura'' corresponds to the two

ancient greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

words (), expressing the "absence" (this prefix is an

alpha privative An alpha privative or, rarely, privative a (from Latin ', from Ancient Greek ) is the prefix ''a-'' or ''an-'' (before vowels) that is used in Indo-European languages such as Sanskrit and Greek language, Greek and in words borrowed therefrom to expr ...

), and (), meaning "animal tail". It refers to the tailless character of these bats. Note that ''Anoura'', the bat genus, should not be confused with neither ' Anura', an order of

amphibians Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arb ...

, nor ' Anoures', the original spelling of this order.

Description

''Anoura'' species are small, with head and body lengths ranging from . Forearm lengths for the genus are . They either totally lack tails or have very short tails of . They have elongated

snout A snout is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw. In many animals, the structure is called a muzzle, rostrum, or proboscis. The wet furless surface around the nostrils of the nose of many mammals is ...

s, as is seen in ''

Glossophaga ''Glossophaga'' (long-tongued bat) is a genus of bats in the leaf-nosed bat family, Phyllostomidae. Members of the genus are native to the American Neotropics. Species *''G. antillarum'' (Rehn, 1902): Jamaican long-tongued bat, Jamaica. * ...

'' bat species. Similar again to ''Glossophaga'', these species have tongues with

lingual papillae Lingual papillae (singular papilla) are small structures on the upper surface of the tongue that give it its characteristic rough texture. The four types of papillae on the human tongue have different structures and are accordingly classified as c ...

Biology

''Anoura'' species consume nectar, pollen, and insects.

Systematics

* ''

Anoura aequatoris ''Anoura aequatoris'' (also known as the equatorial tailless bat) is a species of microbat that lives in South America in the countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Taxonomy When first described in 1921, Einar Lönnberg classified ' ...

''– While a 2006 morphological study suggested elevating ''Anoura caudifera aequatoris'' to species level,Mantilla-Meluk, H., & Baker, R. J. (2006). Systematics of small ''Anoura'' (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from Colombia, with description of a new species. Museum of Texas Tech University. this conclusion has been challenged. Some believe that it is not distinct enough to warrant separation from ''A. caudifera,'' and that further analysis is needed.Calderón-Acevedo, C. A., & Muchhala, N. C. Species limits in the Neotropical Bat Genus ''Anoura'' Gray. Group, 40, 50. A 2008 study challenged that elevating it to a species overstated the amount of diversity within the genus, and that it should remain a subspecies.Jarrín-V, P., & Kunz, T. H. (2008). Taxonomic history of the genus ''Anoura'' (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) with insights into the challenges of morphological species delimitation. Acta Chiropterologica, 10(2), 257-269. * Cadena's tailless bat, ''A. cadenai''– The same 2006 study as above split ''A. cadenai'' away from ''A. caudifer''. It was challenged by the same 2008 study based on the overall small sample size of the 2006 study, and the small morphological differences between ''A. caudifer'' and ''A. cadenai''. ''A. caudifer'' has subsequently been considered monotypic by others, disregarding ''A. cadenai''. * ''

Anoura carishina ''Anoura'' is a genus of leaf-nosed bats from Central and South America. ''Anoura'' members lack or have a short tail, and are nectarivorous bats of small to medium size among the Phyllostomidae. Etymology The genus ''Anoura'' was described in ...

''– This taxa was named and described in 2010 based on morphology, and differentiated a species that had previously been described as ''Anoura geoffroyi''.Mantilla-Meluk, H., & Baker, R. J. (2010). New species of ''Anoura'' (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from Colombia, with systematic remarks and notes on the distribution of the A. geoffroyi complex. Museum of Texas Tech University.

Principal component analysis Principal component analysis (PCA) is a popular technique for analyzing large datasets containing a high number of dimensions/features per observation, increasing the interpretability of data while preserving the maximum amount of information, and ...

of ''A. carishina'' and ''A. geoffroyi'' have produced conflicting results on whether they describe the same species.Mantilla-Meluk, H., Siles, L., & Aguirre, L. F. (2014). Geographic and ecological amplitude in the nectarivorous bat ''Anoura fistulata'' (Pyhllostomidae: Glossophaginae). Caldasia, 36(2), 373-388. Using

mixture model In statistics, a mixture model is a probabilistic model for representing the presence of subpopulations within an overall population, without requiring that an observed data set should identify the sub-population to which an individual observat ...

s, another kind of analysis method, shows that ''A. carishina'' and ''A. geoffroyi'' are indistinguishable. * Tailed tailless bat, ''A. caudifer'' * Handley's tailless bat, ''A. cultrata'' * Tube-lipped nectar bat, ''A. fistulata'' *

, ''A. geoffroyi'' * ''

Anoura javieri ''Anoura'' is a genus of leaf-nosed bats from Central and South America. ''Anoura'' members lack or have a short tail, and are nectarivorous bats of small to medium size among the Phyllostomidae. Etymology The genus ''Anoura'' was described in ...

'' * Broad-toothed tailless bat, ''A. latidens'' * Luis Manuel's tailless bat, ''A. luismanueli'' * '' Anoura peruana''

References

External links

{{Authority control Bat genera Taxa named by John Edward Gray