The Cuban fig-eating bat, or white-shouldered bat, (''Phyllops falcatus'') 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 family Phyllostomidae, found only in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

. It is the sole extant species in the genus ''Phyllops'', although two other species, '' P. vetus'' and '' P. silvai'', are known from fossils.

Description

The Cuban fig-eating bat is a moderately sized bat with dense, silky, greyish-brown fur that fades to a paler colour on the underparts. Four small patches of pure white fur are on the back, one on each shoulder, and one behind each of the ears. Adults range from in head-body length with a wingspan, and weigh between ; females are larger than males. They have a highly domed head, a short snout, rounded ears with a thick tragus, and a broad, flaring, spear-shaped nose leaf with a pointed tip. The wings are relatively large, and bear unusually long thumbs. Most of the wing membrane is blackish in colour, but the portion between the first and second digits is transparent, and cannot be folded closed, as it can in most other bats. The wings have an average

aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...

of 6.6 and average

wing loading In aerodynamics, wing loading is the total weight of an aircraft or flying animal divided by the area of its wing. The stalling speed, takeoff speed and landing speed of an aircraft are partly determined by its wing loading. The faster an airc ...

of 10.9, suggesting that their flight is slow, but highly manoeuvrable. They have no visible tails, and only a short

calcar The calcar, also known as the calcaneum, is the name given to a spur of cartilage arising from inner side of ankle and running along part of outer interfemoral membrane in bats, as well as to a similar spur on the legs of some arthropods. The cal ...

supporting a narrow

uropatagium The patagium (: patagia) is a membranous body part that assists an animal in obtaining lift when gliding or flying. The structure is found in extant and extinct groups of flying and gliding animals including bats, theropod dinosaurs (including b ...

Distribution and habitat

Cuban fig-eating bats are found across

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 neighbouring smaller islands, on

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

(in

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

and the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

), and 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 ...

. A

vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...

has been reported from the

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral island, coral cay archipelago off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami a ...

. They inhabit forested and parkland habitats from sea level to , including both evergreen and deciduous woodlands.

Subspecies

The two recognised subspecies have sometimes been considered as separate species: * ''P. f. falcatus'' - Cuba, Cayman Islands * ''P. f. haitiensis'' - Hispaniola

Biology

Cuban fig-eating bats are

nocturnal Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatur ...

, and, despite the name, little is known of their diet, beyond a reported discovery of ''

Cecropia ''Cecropia'' is a Neotropical genus consisting of 61 recognized species with a highly distinctive lineage of dioecious trees. The genus consists of pioneer trees in the more or less humid parts of the Neotropics, with the majority of the speci ...

'' seeds in their faecal pellets. They spend the day sheltering in dense foliage in groups of three to five individuals. They are known to be a major prey item for local

barn owl The barn owls, owls in the genus '' Tyto'', are the most widely distributed genus of owls in the world. They are medium-sized owls with large heads and characteristic heart-shaped faces. They have long, strong legs with powerful talons. The ter ...

s. They have no identified breeding season, and probably come into

oestrus The estrous cycle (, originally ) is a set of recurring physiological changes induced by reproductive hormones in females of mammalian subclass Theria. Estrous cycles start after sexual maturity in females and are interrupted by anestrous phas ...

several times a year. Most reports indicate that females are more common than males within defined localities, which may suggest a

polygynous Polygyny () is a form of polygamy entailing the marriage of a man to several women. The term polygyny is from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); . Incidence Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any other continent. Some scholar ...

mating system. The echolocation calls of Cuban fig-eating bats have an unusually broad

bandwidth Bandwidth commonly refers to: * Bandwidth (signal processing) or ''analog bandwidth'', ''frequency bandwidth'', or ''radio bandwidth'', a measure of the width of a frequency range * Bandwidth (computing), the rate of data transfer, bit rate or thr ...

, with the first

harmonic In physics, acoustics, and telecommunications, a harmonic is a sinusoidal wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the ''fundamental frequency'' of a periodic signal. The fundamental frequency is also called the ''1st har ...

sweeping down from 73 to 23 kHz. The calls are 4-5 milliseconds long, and with an average interval of 110 milliseconds between pulses.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1832470 Phyllostomidae Mammals described in 1839 Taxa named by John Edward Gray Fauna of the Cayman Islands Mammals of Cuba Mammals of the Dominican Republic Mammals of Haiti Taxonomy articles created by Polbot