Andersen's fruit-eating bat (''Dermanura anderseni'') 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 found in South America.

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described as a new species in 1916 by American zoologist

Wilfred Hudson Osgood Wilfred Hudson Osgood (December 8, 1875 – June 20, 1947) was an American zoologist. Biography Osgood was born in Rochester, New Hampshire, the oldest child of a family of watchmakers. The family moved to California in 1888 and he went to study ...

. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

had been collected in 1915 by "R. H. Becker" (likely Osgood's assistant Robert Becker) in Porto Velho, Brazil.(Day was Lee Garnett Day The

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

for the

species name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

"''anderseni''" is Danish mammalogist Knud Andersen. The classification of '' Dermanura'' and ''

Artibeus The Neotropical fruit bats (''Artibeus'') are a genus of bats within the subfamily Stenodermatinae. The genus consists of 12 species, which are native to Central America, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean. Description These bat ...

'' has been a topic of debate, though there has been genetic and morphological evidence to reclassify the species as '' Artibeus aequatorialis.''

Description

It is a relatively small species of bat, with a forearm length of . Its fur is dark brown on both its dorsal and ventral sides. Individuals weigh . Its

dental formula Dentition pertains to the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth. In particular, it is the characteristic arrangement, kind, and number of teeth in a given species at a given age. That is, the number, type, and morpho-physiology ...

is for a total of 28 teeth. It has indistinct facial stripes.

Biology and ecology

It is one of relatively few species of bats that constructs "tents" out of leaves for roosting. It is likely frugivorous. It is found in several countries in South America, including

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

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 ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, and

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 ...

. It has been found at elevations up to above sea level.

Conservation

As of 2016, it is evaluated as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q146466 Dermanura Bats of South America Bats of Brazil Mammals of Bolivia Mammals of Colombia Mammals of Ecuador Mammals of French Guiana Mammals of Peru Fauna of the Amazon Mammals described in 1916 Taxa named by Wilfred Hudson Osgood