Peters's disk-winged bat (''Thyroptera discifera'') is a

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 ...

species mainly found in

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

. It belongs to the family

Thyropteridae Disk-winged bats are a small group of bats of the family Thyropteridae and genus ''Thyroptera''. They are found in Central and South America, usually in moist tropical rain forests. It is a very small family, consisting of a single genus with f ...

, a small group of disk-winged bats. They have a distinguishing feature of circular, suction disks at the base of their thumbs and hind feet. They use these suction disks to cling onto young unfurling banana or heliconia leaves to roost while avoiding rain and predators. They are very similar in appearance and easily confused with '' Thyroptera tricolor'' which has a paler venter than dorsum, and two cartilaginous projections on the

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 ...

Description

Bats 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

do not have a noseleaf but instead have warts above their nostrils. They are smaller bats with long and slender snouts. ''T. discifera'' is the smallest of the family and possess thick lips, small eyes, and fairly large ears that extend from the eyes to the edge of the mouth. The tragus is present and the ears are covered in hair on the front side. Their entire body is also covered in fine, long hairs usually reddish brown in color. Suction disks are contained on the feet along with those at the base of their thumbs. The head and body length range from with a tail length of . Their diet consists mostly of insects.

Distribution and habitat

Peters' disk-winged bats can be found in

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

to northern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. Previous material thought to be that of ''T. tricolor'' has been found to be ''T. discifera'' and the range has been extended over 1,000 km to the east and documentation of presence in the Atlantic Forest of

Cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

has been found. They are distributed from Nicaragua southward to Bolivia and eastern Brazil where they inhabit lowland, secondary and semi-deciduous forests. Their habitat consists of rainforests and surrounding dry forests. The species has also been found in small agricultural plots and banana plantations. Many species of bats coexist in the Amazonian lowlands. The lack of proper natural history makes it hard to determine population density and size. In 2018, it was assessed for the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

of Threatened Species as ''Least Concern''. IUCN Red List website, ''Peters's Disk-winged Bat''
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References

*''Thyroptera discifera'' (Chiroptera, Thyropteridae) in Bolivia Marcos P. Torres, Tomas Rosas and Sergio I. Tiranti Journal of Mammalogy Vol. 69, No. 2 (May, 1988), pp. 434–435 *New Species of Disk-Winged Bat Thyroptera and Range Extension for ''T. discifera'' Renato Gregorin, Edmara Gonçalves, Burton K. Lim, Mark D. Engstrom 238-246 First published online: 21 April 2006 *Bezerra, Alexandra MR, Fabricio Escarlate-Tavares, and Jader Marinho-Filho."First record of ''Thyroptera discifera'' (Chiroptera: Thyropteridae) in the Cerrado of central Brazil." Acta Chiropterologica 7.1 (2005): 165-170. *A Biodiversity Assessment of Bats (Chiroptera) in a Tropical Lowland Rainforest of Central Amazonia, Including Methodological and Conservation Considerations. Erica M. Sampaio, Elisabeth K. V. Kalko, Enrico Bernard, Bernal Rodríguez-Herrera & Charles O. Handley. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment. Volume 38, Issue 1, 2003 pages 17–31 {{Taxonbar, from=Q658691 Bats of South America Bats of Brazil Mammals of Colombia Thyropteridae Mammals described in 1855 Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters