Macleay's mustached bat (''Pteronotus macleayii'') is a species of

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). 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 birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

in the family

Mormoopidae The family Mormoopidae contains bats known generally as mustached bats, ghost-faced bats, and naked-backed bats. They are found in the Americas from the Southwestern United States to Southeastern Brazil. They are distinguished by the presen ...

. It is found in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

and

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

, and is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

. The species is named for William Sharp Macleay, who collected the

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

Description

Macleay's mustached bat is a small bat, with an average body length of and a tail long. Fully-grown adults weigh , with males being slightly larger than females. The body is covered by greyish-brown to orange-brown fur, fading to near-white on the undersides. The head is relatively flat with a slightly upturned snout. The ears are narrow and pointed, with serrated outer edges near the tips, and a long, slightly flattened tragus. The wings have an

aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...

of 7.6 and a

wing loading In aerodynamics, wing loading is the total weight of an aircraft or flying animal divided by the area of its wing. The stalling speed, takeoff speed and landing speed of an aircraft are partly determined by its wing loading. The faster an airc ...

of 4.6 N/m², suitable for agile flying in cluttered environments, such as forests. The

encephalisation quotient Encephalization quotient (EQ), encephalization level (EL), or just encephalization is a relative brain size measure that is defined as the ratio between observed and predicted brain mass for an animal of a given size, based on nonlinear regress ...

of the species has been calculated at 0.85.

Distribution and habitat

Macleay's mustached bats are widespread on

and

, and are found wherever there are suitable caves. There are two recognised subspecies: * ''Pteronotus macleayii macleayii'' – Cuba,

Isla de la Juventud Isla de la Juventud (; ) is the second-largest Cuban island (after Cuba's mainland) and the seventh-largest island in the West Indies (after mainland Cuba itself, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Andros Island). The island was ...

* ''Pteronotus macleayii griseus'' – Jamaica

Biology and behaviour

Macleay's mustached bats are gregarious and nocturnal, with colonies of several thousand individuals spending the day roosting in deep and humid cave systems. They share the caves with many other local bat species, although generally clustering with members of their own species. They leave the caves shortly after sunset, and spend the night feeding on insects, primarily

flies Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwin ...

and

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

s. The echolocation calls of the bats are short and narrowband, with a dominant frequency of 70–80 kHz. Breeding begins in March, and results in the birth of a single young between June and July.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q936662 Pteronotus Mammals described in 1839 Taxa named by John Edward Gray Taxonomy articles created by Polbot