The buffy flower bat (''Erophylla sezekorni'') is a species of

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

in the

leaf-nosed bat The New World leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) are bats (order Chiroptera) found from southern North America to South America, specifically from the Southwest United States to northern Argentina. Both the scientific and common names derive from ...

family, Phyllostomidae. It is found in

the Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

, the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory, and the largest by population. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located so ...

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, and

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Description

The buffy flower bat is considered a medium-sized bat, however, compared to those in its

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

, it is a generally larger bat. Its hair has two colors on its body; the hairs closer to the body are white, while the

distal Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position provi ...

hairs are brown. The head and face are covered in short, white hairs. Compared to other bats, it has a long snout which sharply rises into its forehead. The buffy flower bat is named after its flowery shaped nose.

Mating

Little is known about the

mating system A mating system is a way in which a group is structured in relation to sexual behaviour. The precise meaning depends upon the context. With respect to animals, the term describes which males and females mating, mate under which circumstances. Reco ...

of bats in the genus '' Erophylla''; however, many of the ones that have been recorded have a

harem A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...

mating system (where there is one male to a large number of females in a single roost). The buffy flower bat is considered unusual in that a similar number of males and females roost together. When it comes time for mating, which takes place in December, they create a section of the roost for displaying. The males will spend a few hours displaying. Displays are made while hanging from the ceiling. They flap their wings repeatedly: sometimes one at a time, sometimes together. They also display by doing very tight loops. Not all males display, though males that display have more children than males that do not display.Murray, K., & Fleming, T. (2008). Social structure and mating system of the buffy flower bat, Erophylla sezekorni (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae). Journal of Mammalogy, 89(6), 1391-1400. After mating, the

gestation period In mammals, pregnancy is the period of reproduction during which a female carries one or more live offspring from implantation in the uterus through gestation. It begins when a fertilized zygote implants in the female's uterus, and ends once i ...

lasts 4–6 months. In June, they give birth to litters of only one pup at a time, whom they breast feed until the end of August.

Diet

The bats eat a combination of

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

, and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s, though fruit dominates their diet. Based on fecal droppings, it was found that 50% of the bats tested had eaten all three in a single night while the remaining ate only two of the three types of food. The insects eaten are primarily

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

s, but also eat

flies Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwin ...

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

s and

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

Parasites

The buffy flower bat is a primary host to a

mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) of two large orders, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari. However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as eac ...

('' Periglischrus cubanus''), from the subclass

Acari Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) of two large orders, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari. However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as ea ...

and the family

Spinturnicidae Spinturnicidae is a family of mites in the order Mesostigmata. The mites are highly specialized parasites of wing or tail membrane or bats. Some species infest eyelids and eye canthi. The species of Spinturnicidae are found in bat habitats throug ...

. These mites are found on the wing

membrane A membrane is a selective barrier; it allows some things to pass through but stops others. Such things may be molecules, ions, or other small particles. Membranes can be generally classified into synthetic membranes and biological membranes. Bi ...

and feed on the bat's blood.Deunff, J., Whitaker, J., & Kurta, A. (2011). Description of nymphal stages of Periglischrus cubanus (Acari, Spinturnicidae), parasites from Erophylla sezekorni bombifrons (Chiroptera) from Puerto Rico with observations on the nymphal stages and host-parasite relationships within the genus Periglischrus. Journal of Medical Entomology, 48(4), 758-63. The

parasites Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The en ...

are passed from mother bat to baby bat while the pup is nursing. This is done by the parasite unlatching via hooks from the mother's wing membrane and falling onto the baby where it will latch on and feed off of its blood.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q304392 Erophylla Mammals described in 1860 Mammals of the Bahamas Fauna of the Cayman Islands Mammals of Cuba Mammals of Jamaica Taxonomy articles created by Polbot