The bamboo bats are a genus of
vesper bats
Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat familie ...
in the genus ''Tylonycteris''. The name translates as "padded bat", and refers to the presence of hairless fleshy pads on the hands and feet, which the bats use to help them grip onto bamboo.
Ecology Asia. The species in this genus roost within bamboo shoots.Malayan bamboo bat
Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia:
Political entities
* British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...
, ''Tylonycteris malayana''
* Lesser bamboo bat
The lesser bamboo bat or lesser flat-headed bat (''Tylonycteris pachypus'') is one of the smallest species of vesper bat, and is native to Southeast Asia.
Description
The bat, the size of a bumble bee, is among the smallest organisms#Smallest ma ...
, ''Tylonycteris pachypus''
* Pygmy bamboo bat
The pygmy bamboo bat (''Tylonycteris pygmaea'') is a species of vesper bat in the family Vespertilionidae. It is found in Southwest China
Southwestern China () is a region in the People's Republic of China. It consists of five provincial admin ...
, ''Tylonycteris pygmaeus''
* Greater bamboo bat
The greater bamboo bat (''Tylonycteris robustula'') is a species of vesper bat in the family Vespertilionidae. It has a wide range within Southern and Southeast Asia, including Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, t ...
, ''Tylonycteris robustula''
* Tonkin bamboo bat
Tonkin, also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain ''Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, including both the N ...
, ''Tylonycteris tonkinensis''
Traditionally, the genus was considered to have only two species, ''T. robustula'' and ''T. pachypus''. A new species, ''pygmaea'', was described in 2008, a 2014 study anaylzed the subspecies ''T. pachypus fulvida'' as distinct enough to be a full species, and then ''T. tonkinensis'' and ''T. malayana'' were split from ''T. robustula'' based in a 2017 by Tu et all.
References
*D.E. Wilson & D.M. Reeder, 2005: Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. Third Edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters
{{Vespertilionidae-stub