''Taphozous'' is a genus of the family
Emballonuridae
Emballonuridae is a family of microbats, many of which are referred to as sac-winged or sheath-tailed bats. They are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. The earliest fossil records are from the Eocene.
Descr ...
. The wide distribution of the genus includes several regions of Australia, Indonesia,
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 Africa. ''Taphozous'' comes from the Greek τάφος, meaning "a tomb". The common names for species include variants on sac-winged, sheathtail, or tomb bats.
The genus is the type for a grouping within the family, subfamily
Taphozoinae,
and an arrangement that describes two subgenera is as follows:
subgenus ''Taphozous'' (''Liponycteris'')
*
Hamilton's tomb bat (''Taphozous hamiltoni'')
*
Naked-rumped tomb bat (''Taphozous nudiventris'')
subgenus ''Taphozous'' (''Taphozous''),
*
Indonesian tomb bat (''Taphozous achates'')
*
Coastal sheath-tailed bat
The coastal sheath-tailed batVan Dyke, S. and Strahan, R. (eds.) (2008) ''The Mammals of Australia'', Third Edition, New Holland / Queensland Museum, Brisbane (''Taphozous australis''), or coastal tomb bat, is a species of sheath-tailed bat in t ...
(''Taphozous australis'')
*
Common sheath-tailed bat (''Taphozous georgianus'')
*
Hildegarde's tomb bat (''Taphozous hildegardeae'')
*
Hill's sheath-tailed bat (''Taphozous hilli'')
*
Arnhem sheath-tailed bat (''Taphozous kapalgensis'')
*
Long-winged tomb bat (''Taphozous longimanus'')
*
Mauritian tomb bat
The Mauritian tomb bat (''Taphozous mauritianus'') is a species of sac-winged bat in the family Emballonuridae that is found in central and southern Africa and Madagascar. It was discovered in 1818 by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and is char ...
(''Taphozous mauritianus'')
*
Black-bearded tomb bat (''Taphozous melanopogon'')
*
Egyptian tomb bat (''Taphozous perforatus'')
*
Theobald's tomb bat (''Taphozous theobaldi'')
*
Troughton's sheath-tailed bat (''Taphozous troughtoni'')
The diversity of some species are recognised as subspecies. Some populations are poorly known, the species ''Taphozous hilli'' was not recognised amongst the population of the more common species ''Taphozous georgianus'' until 1980.
References
External links
Bat genera
Taxa named by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
{{Emballonuridae-stub