The little goblin bat (''Mormopterus minutus'') 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 bi ...

in the family Molossidae, the free-tailed bats. It is

endemic 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 ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. This bat is vulnerable due to habitat loss and degradation. During the day it can be found roosting in the

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees ...

'' Copernicia gigas'' and in human-made structures. The diet of this bat is entirely composed of insects. It hunts insects using echolocation, emitting a variable pattern of calls.

Description

Its total body length is . The fur is short and dense, with individual hairs about long. The face lacks fur except for a sparse layer of fine hairs. The wing membranes on both sides of the body are furred close to the abdomen. The

uropatagium 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, ...

has hair on both sides. Its forearm is approximately long. Its ears are small and pointed at the tips. The tragus is short, at . 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-physiolo ...

is , for a total of 28 teeth.

Distribution

''M. minutus'' is the only species of bat

to Cuba. Specimens have been collected from

Trinidad, Cuba Trinidad () is a town in the province of Sancti Spíritus, central Cuba. Together with the nearby Valle de los Ingenios, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1988, because of its historical importance as a center of the sugar trade in ...

( type locality), as well as the Cuban municipalities of

Omaja Omaja is a small town and ''consejo popular'' of the municipality of Majibacoa, Cuba. It is located in the eastern part of the province, 50 kilometers southwest of Holguín and 20 in the east of Las Tunas. History The land in the area was so ...

and Guaro (near Preston). In 1911,

Glover Morrill Allen Glover Morrill Allen (February 8, 1879 – February 14, 1942) was an American zoology, zoologist. He was born at Walpole, New Hampshire, the son of Reverend Nathaniel Glover Allen and Harriet Ann (Schouler) Allen, and studied at Harvard University ...

hypothesized that the ancestor of the little goblin bat originated in Central America, and dispersed to Cuba by way of the Yucatan land bridge, which no longer exists. This hypothesis of Cuban ''Mormopterus'' originating in Central America was echoed 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 n ...

in 1989, as per Mancina 2007.

Taxonomic history

The species was described by Gerrit Smith Miller Jr. in 1899 and initially placed in the genus ''Nyctinomus''. This species's

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 ...

is a male specimen collected by

Frank M. Chapman Frank Michler Chapman (June 12, 1864 – November 15, 1945) was an American ornithologist and pioneering writer of field guides. Biography Chapman was born in West Englewood, New Jersey and attended Englewood Academy. He joined the staff of ...

of the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

. Miller notes Chapman had identified this specimen as '' Nyctinomus brasiliensis'' in an earlier paper. The

specific epithet 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 ...

''minutus'' is Latin for "small, paltry"; Miller wrote in his species description that it was the "smallest known species of ''Nyctinomus''". In 1907, Miller classified this species in the genus ''Mormopterus''. The

Mormopterus ''Mormopterus'' is a genus of molossid microchiropterans, small flying mammals referred to as free-tailed bats. The genus has been the subject of several revisions, and the diversity of taxa centred on Australia were separated to a new genus ''O ...

genus is further divided into species group, which classify members of the genus based on how closely related they are. The little goblin bat is placed in the ''kalinowskii'' group, which also contains the following species: * Kalinowski's mastiff bat (''Mormopterus kalinowskii'') * Incan little mastiff bat (''Mormopterus phrudus'')

Biology

It is

insectivorous A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were ...

, locating insects while in flight using echolocation. This species has the ability to change its echolocation style based on the environment that it is in. The parasite ''Ochoterenatrema breckenridgei'', a

trematode Trematoda is a class of flatworms known as flukes. They are obligate internal parasites with a complex life cycle requiring at least two hosts. The intermediate host, in which asexual reproduction occurs, is usually a snail. The definitive host ...

in the order

Plagiorchiida Plagiorchiida is a large order of trematodes, synonymous to Echinostomida. They belong to the Digenea, a large subclass of flukes. This order contains relatively few significant parasites of humans. The following families are placed here, organ ...

, has been found in its digestive tract. ''O. breckenridgeii'' uses

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

es as

intermediate host In biology and medicine, a host is a larger organism that harbours a smaller organism; whether a parasitic, a mutualistic, or a commensalist ''guest'' (symbiont). The guest is typically provided with nourishment and shelter. Examples include a ...

s; when bats eat the mosquitoes, the parasites are able to mature into adults within their

intestines The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract, digestive tract, alimentary canal) is the tract or passageway of the digestive system that leads from the mouth to the anus. The GI tract contains all the major organs of the digestive system, in humans ...

Conservation

, it is listed as vulnerable by the

IUCN 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 natu ...

. It meets the criteria for this assessment because its area of occupancy is less than , and there is a projected decline in the extent and quality of its habitat. Its population is decreasing. A main threat to this species is

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

. Some disagree with the IUCN's assessment of the species, asserting that it should instead be listed as

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

Description

Distribution

Taxonomic history

Biology

Conservation

References

Further reading