The fraternal fruit-eating bat (''Artibeus fraterculus'') is a species of

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". 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 ...

in the family Phyllostomidae that is found in drier habitats in

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...

and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

. It was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the

Jamaican fruit bat The Jamaican, common or Mexican fruit bat (''Artibeus jamaicensis'') is a fruit-eating bat native to Mexico, through Central America to northwestern South America, as well as the Greater and many of the Lesser Antilles. It is also an uncommon re ...

, but was raised to species level in 1978. The smallest species in the group of large ''

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 and South America, as well as parts of the Caribbean. Description These bats grow t ...

'' (a group that also includes the Jamaican fruit bat,

flat-faced fruit-eating bat The flat-faced fruit-eating bat (''Artibeus planirostris'') is a South American species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae. It is sometimes considered a subspecies of the Jamaican fruit bat, but can be distinguished by its larger size, the pre ...

, and

great fruit-eating bat The great fruit-eating bat (''Artibeus lituratus'') is a bat species found from Mexico to Brazil and Argentina, as well as in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and To ...

), it has a forearm length of , a total length of , and a weight of . It is a

generalist A generalist is a person with a wide array of knowledge on a variety of subjects, useful or not. It may also refer to: Occupations * a physician who provides general health care, as opposed to a medical specialist; see also: ** General pract ...

frugivore, feeding on a variety of fruit and supplementing its diet with insects. It breeds in both the wet and

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

, with

parturition Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...

peaking in February and May. The only known predator is the barn owl, although it may also be hunted by other

birds of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predat ...

and the

spectral bat The spectral bat (''Vampyrum spectrum''), also called the great false vampire bat or Linnaeus's false vampire bat, is a large, carnivorous leaf-nosed bat found in Mexico, Central America, and South America. It is the only member of the genus '' ...

. It is parasitized by species of streblid

bat flies Bat flies are members of the insect order Diptera, the true flies, which are external parasites of bats. Two families of flies are exclusively bat flies: Nycteribiidae and Streblidae. Bat flies have a cosmopolitan distribution, meaning that they ...

, mites, and

protozoans Protozoa (singular: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic tissues and debris. Histo ...

. The fraternal fruit-eating bat is listed as being a species of

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

by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

(IUCN) on 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 the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

due to its commonness, large range, and lack of significant population declines. However, it may be threatened by

heavy metal poisoning A toxic heavy metal is any relatively dense metal or metalloid that is noted for its potential toxicity, especially in environmental contexts. The term has particular application to cadmium, mercury and lead, all of which appear in the World H ...

in some areas.

Taxonomy and systematics

The fraternal fruit-eating bat was first described in 1924 by Harold Elmer Anthony on the basis of a specimen collected at an altitude of in Portovelo, el Oro,

. It was subsequently considered a subspecies of

(''Artibeus jamaicensis''), until it was raised to species level again by

Karl Koopman Karl Koopman (1 April 1920 – 22 September 1997) was an American zoologist with a special interest in bats. He worked for many years in the Mammalogy Department of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Eponyms Mammal species ...

in 1978 on the basis of morphological data. The generic name ''Artibeus'' is from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''arti'', meaning straight, and ''bao'', meaning to walk. The specific name ''fraterculus'' means "little brother" in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, referring to the fact that the fraternal fruit-eating bat is the smallest species in the group of large ''

''. In English, the species is also known as the western artibeus, while it is known as the murciélago frutero fraternal or murciélago frutero del suroccidente in Spanish. The fraternal fruit-eating bat is one of 12 species in the genus ''Artibeus''. Within the genus, it was historically considered to be part of the Jamaican fruit bat complex. Instead, studies of mitochondrial DNA have shown that it is

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

to the hairy fruit-eating bat, and these two species form a sister clade to the

Honduran fruit-eating bat The Honduran fruit-eating bat (''Artibeus inopinatus'') is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae. It is found in El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Description Artibeus inopinatus is a fruit eating bat native to Central America, ...

. It diverged from other species around 2.3 million years ago, after the closure of the Panamian land bridge. The species is considered to be representative of a historical connection between bats on the west Andean slope and Middle America, as it is most closely related to species that are now restricted to Middle America.

Description

The fraternal fruit-eating bat is the smallest species of large ''Artibeus'' (a group that also includes the Jamaican fruit bat,

, and

), with a forearm length of and total length of . Adults weigh . It is the palest South American ''Artibeus'', and is similar in appearance to Anderson's fruit-eating bat, but smaller. It occurs in both grayish-brown and yellowish-brown color morphs. It has soft velvety fur, which is short on the back. The dorsal fur is dark gray to dark brown. The fur on the underside is pale and appears frosted due to the silvery-gray tip of each hair. The head is large with a relatively big snout and a large, well-developed, and

elliptical Elliptical may mean: * having the shape of an ellipse, or more broadly, any oval shape ** in botany, having an elliptic leaf shape ** of aircraft wings, having an elliptical planform * characterised by ellipsis (the omission of words), or by conc ...

noseleaf with a free horseshoe. The ears and noseleaf, along with the skin membrane on the forearm,

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

metacarpals In human anatomy, the metacarpal bones or metacarpus form the intermediate part of the skeletal hand located between the phalanges of the fingers and the carpal bones of the wrist, which forms the connection to the forearm. The metacarpal bones ar ...

, and phalanges are pale brown, contrasting with the dark blackish patagium (wing membrane). The tragus (a projection in front of the ear) is gray to dark gray, while the feet and uropatagium (tail membrane) are dark brown. The

propatagium The patagium (plural: patagia) is a membranous body part that assists an animal in obtaining lift when gliding or flight. The structure is found in extant and extinct groups of flying and gliding animals including bats, birds, some dromaeosaurs ...

extends to the first thumb phalanx, while the wing membrane extends to the base of the thumbs. The tail membrane has a slightly hairy central notch and the tail is absent. The

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-physiolog ...

is , with a total of 30 teeth. The fraternal fruit-eating bat's facial lines are faint and hardly visible, and some individuals have lower stripes that are unnoticeable. Contrastingly, Anderson's fruit bats have thin, clearly visible facial lines, while the great fruit-eating bat has prominent facial lines. The flat-faced fruit-eating bat also has conspicuous facial lines.

Ecology

Diet

The fraternal fruit-eating bat is mainly a frugivore, feeding on a wide variety of fruit such as ''

Ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extendi ...

'' figs,

mangoes A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree ''Mangifera indica''. It is believed to have originated in the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South ...

loquats The loquat (''Eriobotrya japonica'') is a large evergreen shrub or tree, grown commercially for its orange fruit and for its leaves, which are used to make herbal tea. It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant. The loquat is in the family ...

'','' '' Brosimum alicastrum'', '' Muntingia calabura'', ''

Psidium guajava ''Psidium guajava'', the common guava, yellow guava, lemon guava, or apple guava is an evergreen shrub or small tree native to the Caribbean, Central America and South America. It is easily pollinated by insects; when cultivated, it is polli ...

'', '' Syzygium jambos'', '' Iochroma arborescens'', '' Solanum crinitipes'', '' Styrax subargentea'', '' Cecropia obtusifolia'', and '' Cecropia polystachya''. It also supplements its diet with insects.

Breeding

The fraternal fruit-eating bat is a

seasonal breeder Seasonal breeders are animal species that successfully mate only during certain times of the year. These times of year allow for the optimization of survival of young due to factors such as ambient temperature, food and water availability, and ch ...

which breeds twice a year in both the wet and

. Although it gives

birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...

in both seasons, it peaks during February and May. Pregnant females have also been reported in October and November, while lactating females have been reported in July and November. During the dry season, males with descended

gonads A gonad, sex gland, or reproductive gland is a mixed gland that produces the gametes and sex hormones of an organism. Female reproductive cells are egg cells, and male reproductive cells are sperm. The male gonad, the testicle, produces sper ...

and females with developed nipples have been reported in September.

Predation

The only known predator of the fraternal fruit-eating bat is the barn owl. However, it may also be predated by other species of owls and the

bat falcon The bat falcon (''Falco rufigularis'') is a falcon that is a resident breeder in tropical Mexico, Central and South America, Trinidad. It was long known as ''Falco albigularis''; the names ''Falco fusco-coerulescens'' or ''Falco fuscocaerulesce ...

. Another possible predator is the

Parasites

The fraternal fruit-eating bat is parasitized by the streblid bat flies '' Aspidoptera phyllostomatis'', '' Megistopoda aranea'', '' Metelasmus pseudopterus'', '' Speiseria ambigua'', '' Strebla guajiro'', and '' Trichobius joblingi'' and the

mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear e ...

Periglischrus iheringi ''Periglischrus'' is a genus of mites in the family Spinturnicidae. There are more than 30 described species in ''Periglischrus'', found in South, Central, and North America, and in Africa. The species of ''Periglischrus'', like the other membe ...

''. It is also parasitized by the protozoan ''

Trypanosoma cruzi ''Trypanosoma cruzi'' is a species of parasitic euglenoids. Among the protozoa, the trypanosomes characteristically bore tissue in another organism and feed on blood (primarily) and also lymph. This behaviour causes disease or the likelihood o ...

''.

Echolocation

The starting

frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...

of echolocation calls is 89.45–103.99 kHz and the ending frequency is 59.18–84.09 kHz, with a duration of 1.61 milliseconds.

Distribution and habitat

The fraternal fruit-eating bat is found in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

and Ecuador. In Peru, it is found west of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

in the Tumbes, Piura, Lambayeque, and Ica departments and in arid parts of the Amazon Basin in the

Cajamarca Cajamarca (), also known by the Quechua name, ''Kashamarka'', is the capital and largest city of the Cajamarca Region as well as an important cultural and commercial center in the northern Andes. It is located in the northern highlands of Peru ...

and Amazonas departments. In Ecuador, it is found in the central and southern coastal areas, and in the southwestern foothills of the Andes. It inhabits forests, disturbed habitats, and agricultural and urban areas. It is most frequently found in mangrove forests, arid scrubland, and

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

and semideciduous forests. It is also uncommonly found in wetter habitats. It has been recorded in humid montane scrub in Loja, Ecuador. It occurs at elevations between . Throughout most of its range, the fraternal fruit-eating bat is sympatric with Anderson's fruit-eating bat and the great fruit-eating bat. It also co-occurs with many other species of bats, including endemics in the Tumbesian Center of Endemism, a region of the Andes with a proportion of

endemic species Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

. It roosts in hollow trees, shrubs, caves, termite mounds, bridges, churches, houses, gardens, and mines. The number of individuals roosting together can range from nine to hundreds of bats.

Status

The fraternal fruit-eating bat is listed as being a species of

by the

(IUCN) on the

due to its large range, commonness, and lack of significant population decline. It does not face major threats throughout its range. However, urban populations from

Guayaquil , motto = Por Guayaquil Independiente en, For Independent Guayaquil , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Ecuador#South America , pushpin_re ...

in Ecuador have been found to have elevated levels of

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

in their

vital organs In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a ...

, and

may be a localized threat to the species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q308111 Artibeus Bats of South America Mammals of Ecuador Mammals of Peru Mammals described in 1924 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot