Horsfield's fruit bat (''Cynopterus horsfieldii'') is a species of megabat native to South East Asia. It is named for

Thomas Horsfield Thomas Horsfield (May 12, 1773 – July 24, 1859) was an American physician and natural history, naturalist who worked extensively in Indonesia, describing numerous species of plants and animals from the region. He was later a curator of the Eas ...

, an American naturalist who presented the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

to the British Museum.

Description

Horsfield's fruit bat is a medium-sized megabat, intermediate in size between flying foxes and

pygmy fruit bat The pygmy fruit bat (''Aethalops alecto''), also known as the grey fruit bat, is a species of megabat. Distribution Three specimens were collected in April 1995 from Bario highlands in Sarawak. ''A. alecto'' is confined to montane forest above 1 ...

s. Adults weigh around , and have light-grey to brown fur, with a reddish-brown or orange mantle around the shoulders. In some males, the mantle extends across the chest, and the fur is often brighter in colour than in females. The rim of the ears and the skin overlying the metacarpals and

phalanges The phalanges (singular: ''phalanx'' ) are digital bones in the hands and feet of most vertebrates. In primates, the thumbs and big toes have two phalanges while the other digits have three phalanges. The phalanges are classed as long bones. ...

within the wing are white. Juveniles have a more bland coat pattern, with uniformly dull buff or grey fur. The bats have a short, broad snout, ending in a pair of almost tubular nostrils. Both the eyes and ears are large, although the latter have a simpler structure than in most other bats, and lack

tragi The tragus is a small pointed eminence of the external ear, situated in front of the concha, and projecting backward over the meatus. It also is the name of hair growing at the entrance of the ear. Its name comes the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'g ...

. The wings have a low aspect ratio and high wing loading, typical of many megabats, and indicating a relatively slow flight speed and moderate manoeuvrability.

Distribution and habitat

Horsfield's fruit bat is found in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

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 ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, and

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

. Within this region, it inhabits a broad range of lowland habitats, from dense primary rain forest to agricultural land and suburban gardens. The four recognised subspecies are: *''C. h. harpax'' - Thailand, peninsular Malaysia,

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

*''C. h. horsfieldii'' -

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

and islands east to Sumbawa **''C. h. persimilis'' -

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

*''C. h. princeps'' -

Nias Nias ( id, Pulau Nias, Nias language: ''Tanö Niha'') (sometimes called Little Sumatra in English) is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago () of which the island is the centre, ...

Biology and behaviour

Horsfield's fruit bats eat the fruit of

strangler fig Strangler fig is the common name for a number of tropical and subtropical plant species in the genus ''Ficus'', including those that are commonly known as banyans. Some of the more well-known species are: * ''Ficus altissima'' * ''Ficus aurea'', ...

s, '' Elaeocarpus'', and ''

Payena ''Payena'' is a genus of plants in the family Sapotaceae described as a genus in 1844. ''Payena'' is native to Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-east ...

'', and the flowers of bitter beans. They have been reported to pluck fruit from trees and carry it to roosts elsewhere to feed. During the dry season, when fruit is in short supply, they instead feed on

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

, which they take from a wide variety of plants. They live in small groups, consisting of a single adult male and up to five females and their young. Although these groups are maintained year-round, individual females often move between different groups, and may spend some time nesting alone between leaving one group and joining another. They roost in trees and cave mouths, reportedly favouring

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

trees. They often modify their roosting sites by constructing tents from the leaves, partly cutting through them to make an inverted "V" shape. They breed throughout the year, but most commonly give birth at two times of the year, between February and March and between July and August. They have been reported to live for at least 31 months.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q134344 Cynopterus Bats of Southeast Asia Bats of Indonesia Bats of Malaysia Mammals of Borneo Mammals of Thailand Fauna of Java Fauna of Sumatra Least concern biota of Asia Mammals described in 1843