''Diclidurus'' is a genus of bats whose common name is the ghost bats (not to be confused with the Australia ''

Macroderma gigas The ghost bat (''Macroderma gigas'') is a species of bat found in northern Australia. The species is the only Australian bat that preys on large vertebrates – birds, reptiles and other mammals – which they detect using acute sight and heari ...

''). ''Diclidurus'' all inhabit tropical

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 ...

, and ''D. albus'' is also found in

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

.Emmons, L.H (1997). ''Neotropical Rainforest Mammals.'' 2nd edition. The fur of these

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...

bats is white, sometimes with a slight greyish tinge, except ''D. isabella'', which is partially pale brown. The only other all-white bat in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

is the Honduran white bat, but it is easily distinguished from ''Diclidurus'' by its relatively large nose leaf. ''Diclidurus'' are poorly known and only infrequently captured, at least in part because they fly high above the ground or in the forest canopy (above the typical height of

mist net Mist nets are used by hunters and poachers, but also by ornithologists and chiropterologists to capture wild birds and bats for banding or other research projects. Mist nets are typically made of nylon or polyester mesh suspended between two ...

s used by bat researchers).Ferreira, A.P.; D.C. Melo; and A. Loures-Ribeiro (2013). ''Diclidurus albus Wied-Neuwied, 1820 (Chiroptera: Emballonuridae): First record of the species in the state of Paraíba, Brazil.'' Check List 9(4): 793–796.

Species

* Northern ghost bat—''D. albus'' * Greater ghost bat—''D. ingens'' * Isabelle's ghost bat—''D. isabella'' * Lesser ghost bat—''D. scutatus''

References

Bat genera Taxa named by Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied {{Emballonuridae-stub