''Miniopterus'', known as the bent-winged or long winged bats, is the sole
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of the
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Miniopteridae. They are small flying insectivorous mammals, micro-bats of the order
Chiroptera
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 ...
, with wings over twice the length of the body. The genus had been placed in its own subfamily among the
vespertilionid bats, as Miniopterinae, but is now classified as its own family.
Taxonomy
The genus was erected in 1837 by
Charles L. Bonaparte. In the first systematic revision of the genus, published in a monograph of ''Miniopterus'' in 1858 by
Robert F. Tomes, the author reallocated specimens and described new taxa.
A new systematic arrangement was produced in an extensive study of poorly known chiropterans of the Indo-Austral region by
James E. Hill in 1985, the greater resolution of the genus being determined by the
British Museum of Natural History
The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum (Lo ...
's acquisition of new series of specimens collected in Fiji, the New Hebrides and New Caledonia and the extensive collection made in New Guinea by ecologist Ben Gaskell on "
Operation Drake".
Recognised as a very widely dispersed group with distinct morphology, biology and genetic characters, the number of species and systematic arrangements varied between still contradictory treatments. The genus was nested within
Vespertilionidae
Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat familie ...
as Miniopterinae, one of five subfamilies, with doubts remaining on the relationships to sister groups. The position of the minopterines was determined as showing a phylogenetic relationship to either the vespertilionids or the
molossids, these assumptions were compared and analysed in study using large data sets derived from multiple genetic indicators and statistical analysis to determine the basal relationships within the order
Chiroptera
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 ...
. The authors of this 2007 study found support for elevation to the rank of family—as Miniopteridae—and that the vespertilionids and ''Miniopterus'' species formed a clade that had diverged from the molossids (free-tailed bats) at a period around 54–43 million years ago and from other species 49–38
mya.
Morphology
Bent-winged bats are typically small (total length c. 10 cm, wingspans 30–35 cm, mass less than 20 g), with broad, short muzzles. The cranium is bulbous and taller than the snout, a feature shared with
woolly bats and
mouse-eared bats
The mouse-eared bats or myotises are a diverse and widespread genus (''Myotis'') of bats within the family Vespertilionidae. The noun "''myotis''" itself is a Neo-Latin construction, from the Greek "''muós'' (meaning "mouse") and "''oûs''" (m ...
. This combination of features was likely present in the common ancestor of the vesper bats. They have two tiny, vestigial premolars between the upper canines and first large premolar. Unlike other bats, they lack a tendon-locking mechanism in their toes.
The common name bent-winged bat refers to their most obvious feature, the group's ability to fold back an exceptionally long third finger when the wings are folded. This finger gives the bats long, narrow wings that allows them to move at high speed in open environments and in some species to migrate over a distance of hundreds of kilometres.
The proportional length of the wing is around two and a half times that of the body and head.
Research applications
In 2017, evidence of
deltaretrovirus
''Deltaretrovirus'' is a genus of the ''Retroviridae'' family. It consists of exogenous horizontally transmitted viruses found in several groups of mammals. The genus contains Bovine leukemia virus and three species of primate T-lymphotropic v ...
es was found in the genome of the Miniopteridae.
[Farkašová, H., Hron, T., Pačes, J., Hulva, P., Benda, P., Gifford, R. J., & Elleder, D. (2017). Discovery of an endogenous Deltaretrovirus in the genome of long-fingered bats (Chiroptera: Miniopteridae). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201621224.]
Deltaretroviruses only affect mammals, and this was the first evidence that they affected bat species.
The presence of the deltaretrovirus in multiple Miniopterid species suggests that the virus was present in the family before speciation 20 million years ago.
The evolutionary history of deltaretroviruses is important because they cause
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
in humans.
Classification
Family Miniopteridae
*Genus ''Miniopterus'' - long-winged bats
**
Aellen's long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus aelleni''
**
African long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus africanus''
**
Montagne d'Ambre long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus ambohitrensis''
**†''
Miniopterus approximatus'' (fossil, Pliocene)
**
Sandy long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus arenarius''
**
Little bent-wing bat, ''Miniopterus australis''
**
Javanese long-fingered bat, ''Miniopteris blepotis''
**
Long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus brachytragos'' (Madagascar long-fingered bat)
**
Eger's long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus egeri''
**
Eschscholtz's long-fingered bat, ''Miniopteris eschscholtzii''
**†''
Miniopterus fossilis'' (fossil, Miocene)
**
Lesser long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus fraterculus''
**
Eastern bent-wing bat, ''Miniopterus fuliginosus''
**
Southeast Asian long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus fuscus''
**
Glen's long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus gleni''
**
Griffith's long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus griffithsi''
**
Comoro long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus griveaudi''
**
Greater long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus inflatus''
**
Small Melanesian long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus macrocneme''
**
Maghrebian bent-winged bat, ''Miniopterus maghrebensis''
**
Western bent-winged bat, ''Miniopterus magnater''
**
Mahafaly long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus mahafaliensis''
**
Major's long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus majori''
**
Manavi long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus manavi''
**
Intermediate long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus medius''
**
Least long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus minor''
**
Mozambique long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus mossambicus''
**
Natal long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus natalensis''
**
Newton's long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus newtoni''
**
Nimba long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus nimbae''
**
Australasian bent-wing bat, ''Miniopterus orianae''
**
Pale bent-winged bat, ''Miniopterus pallidus''
**
Philippine long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus paululus''
**
Peterson's long-fingered bat ''Miniopterus petersoni''
**''
Miniopterus phillipsi''
**
Small bent-winged bat, ''Miniopterus pusillus''
**
Loyalty bent-winged bat, ''Miniopterus robustior''
**''
Miniopterus rummeli'' (fossil, Miocene)
**
Common bent-wing bat, ''Miniopterus schreibersii''
**
Shortridge's long-fingered bat ''Miniopterus shortridgei''
**
Sororcula long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus sororculus''
**†''
Miniopterus tao'' (fossil, Pleistocene)
**
Great bent-winged bat, ''Miniopterus tristis''
**
Villiers's bent-winged bat, ''Miniopterus villiersi''
**
Wilson's long-fingered bat, ''Miniopterus wilsoni''
**†''
Miniopterus zapfei'' (fossil, Miocene)
The fossil genus ''
Tachypteron''
Storch ''et al.'' 2002 is known from the
Messel Formation
The Messel Formation is a geologic formation in Hesse, central Germany, dating back to the Eocene epoch (about 47 Ma). Its geographic range is restricted to the Messel pit. There it unconformably overlies crystalline Variscan basement and ...
of Germany. It was previously recovered as a member of the
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.
Desc ...
, but a 2024 study unexpectedly recovered it as a member of Miniopteridae, although this classification is tentative.
Range
Bent-winged bats occur in southern Europe, across Africa and Madagascar, throughout Asia, and in Australia, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. One species, the
common bent-wing bat, inhabits the whole of this range.
The group rapidly colonized much of this area in the last 15,000 years.
See also
*
List of bats of Madagascar
Bats are one of the major components of the indigenous mammalian fauna of Madagascar, in addition to tenrecs, lemurs, euplerid carnivores, and nesomyine rodents. Forty-six bat species have so far been recorded on Madagascar, of which thirty-six ...
References
*Goodman, S. M., K. E. Ryan, C. P. Maminirina, J. Fahr, L. Christidis, and B. Appleton. 2007. Specific status of populations on Madagascar referred to ''Miniopterus fraterculus'' (Chiroptera: Vespertillionidae), with description of a new species. Journal of Mammalogy, 88:1216-1229.
* Goodman, S.M., Maminirina, C.P., Weyeneth, N., Bradman, H.M., Christidis, L., Ruedi, M. & Appleton, B. 2009. The use of molecular and morphological characters to resolve the taxonomic identity of cryptic species: the case of ''Miniopterus manavi'' (Chiroptera: Miniopteridae). Zoologica Scripta 38: 339-363
*Mein, P. and Ginsburg, L. 2002. Sur l'âge relatif des différents karstiques miocènes de La Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère). Cahiers scientifiques, Muséum d'Histoire naturelle, Lyon 2:7–47.
*Miller-Butterworth, C., Murphy, W., O'Brien, S., Jacobs, D., Springer, M. and Teeling, E. 2007
A family matter: Conclusive resolution of the taxonomic position of the long-fingered bats, ''Miniopterus'' Molecular Biology and Evolution 24(7):1553–1561.
*Simmons, N. B. 2005. Order Chiroptera. pp. 312–529 ''in'' Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
*Furman, A., Öztunç, T. & Çoraman, E. 2010b. On the phylogeny of ''Miniopterus schreibersii schreibersii'' and ''Miniopterus schreibersii pallidus'' from Asia Minor in reference to other ''Miniopterus''taxa (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae). ''Acta Chiropterologica'' 12, 61-72.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q18924
Bat genera
Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte
Extant Miocene first appearances