The big-eared flying fox (''Pteropus macrotis'') is a species of bat in the family Pteropodidae, larger bats who subsist largely on fruits. The species is distributed across a range in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

and islands nearing the

Cape York peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación ...

at the northeast of Australia, at elevations less than 500 metres and often in coastal mangroves.

Taxonomy and etymology

''Pteropus macrotis'' was described as a new species in 1867 by German naturalist

Wilhelm Peters Wilhelm Karl Hartwich (or Hartwig) Peters (22 April 1815 in Koldenbüttel – 20 April 1883) was a German natural history, naturalist and explorer. He was assistant to the anatomist Johannes Peter Müller and later became curator of the Natural ...

. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

had been collected on the

n island of

Buru Buru (formerly spelled Boeroe, Boro, or Bouru) is the third largest island within the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. It lies between the Banda Sea to the south and Seram Sea to the north, west of Ambon and Seram islands. The island belongs to Ma ...

. Its

species name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

"''macrotis''" comes from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

'' makrós'' meaning "long" and '' oûs'' meaning "ear". ''P. macrotis'' is also referred to by the common name large-eared flying-fox.

Description

Distinguished in the region as a smaller species of the ''

Pteropus ''Pteropus'' (suborder Yinpterochiroptera) is a genus of megabats which are among the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as fruit bats or flying foxes, among other colloquial names. They live in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Austra ...

'' genus, their forearm length ranges from 143 to 157 millimetres. The

pelage Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily #Guard hair, guard hair on top and thick #Down hair, underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as ...

is uniformly dark brown, but for yellowish coloration at the mantle and highlights of the ventral fur. The ears of ''P. macrotis'' are distinctly elongated to a fine point, the length from notch to tip is 30 to 37 mm. A range in length of the head and body combined is recorded as 180 to 240 mm, their mass is from 315 to 425 grams.

Biology and ecology

Its diet consists of plant matter such as fruit and flower blossoms, including the blossoms of

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the ...

trees. It has been known to be infected by the blood parasite '' Mycoplasma mariboi'', a kind of

Rickettsiales The Rickettsiales, informally called rickettsias, are an order of small Alphaproteobacteria. They are obligate intracellular parasites, and some are notable pathogens, including ''Rickettsia'', which causes a variety of diseases in humans, and ' ...

Range and habitat

It is found on the island of New Guinea, appearing in both

and

. It also occurs on the island of

Salawati Salawati is one of the four major islands in the Raja Ampat Islands in Southwest Papua (formerly West Papua), Indonesia. Its area is 1,623 km2. Salawati is separated from New Guinea to the southeast by the Sele Strait (a.k.a. Galowa Strai ...

(Indonesia), Boigu (Australia), Saibai (Australia), and the

Aru Islands The Aru Islands Regency ( id, Kabupaten Kepulauan Aru) is a group of about 95 low-lying islands in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia. It also forms a regency of Maluku Province, with a land area of . At the 2011 Census the Regency had a po ...

(Indonesia). It is generally found at elevations below above sea level. It is associated with forested habitat, including tropical moist forest, dry forest, and monsoon forest.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1768580 Pteropus Bats of Oceania Mammals of Papua New Guinea Mammals of Western New Guinea Mammals described in 1867 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters Bats of New Guinea