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Bat
Facts
There are over 900 species of bats on earth. That is almost
one
quarter of the 4,625 species of mammal of earth.
There are about 43 species of bats in the United States.
Bats are natures night-time bug zapper. Each little brown bat (one
kind we have in the US) can eat up to 1,000 mosquito-sized bugs in one hour.
Many bat species in the tropics eat fruit or nectar. These bats
disperse seeds and pollinate the flowers of thousands of kinds of plants. Without
bats many plants would become extinct.
There are no vampire bats anywhere in the United States or Canada.
There are only 3 species of vampire bats in the entire world and they all live in Latin
America.
Bats are mammals, just like humans. Bats are not birds.
Bats are everywhere. Bats are found on all the continents of the
planet except Antarctica.
Bats come in many sizes. The smallest bat, the bumblebee, weights
less then a penny and has a wingspan of only 2 inches. The largest bat, the flying
fox, can have a wingspan of almost 6 feet.
Classification of the Little Brown Bat
Myotis lucifugus
Kingdom
Animalia
All living things are divided into five kingdoms: Animalia,
Fungi, Plantae, Protista, and Monera.
The two we know best are Animalia (Animals), and Plantae (Plants). |
Phylum Phylum
Chordata
Animals with a nerve cord down the back (a dorsal hollow nerve cord). |
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Subphylum Subphylum
Vertebrata
This Subphylum contains all animals with the spinal cord enclosed in a
vertebral column (a backbone). Examples: Fish, frogs, snakes, birds, dogs, and people. |
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Class
Mammalia
All mammals. Mammals are animals that have fur or hair, bear live
young, and nurse their offspring with milk. Examples: people, dogs, cats, bats. |
Some other classes: Amphibia, Aves,
Reptilia, Chondrichthyes, Osteichthyes |
Order
Chiroptera
All bats. Bats are the only mammals that really fly.
The name chiroptera means hand-wing. |
The class Mammalia has 26 different orders. |
Suborder
Microchiroptera
The group of generally small, insect eating (insectivorous) bats, all
of which have the ability to echolocate. They are found throughout the world. |
The order Chiroptera has 2 suborders:
Microchiroptera and Megachiroptera |
Family
Vespertillionidae
The most common family of bats. Many live in caves and capture insects
in flight. Family names always end in ae. |
There are 17 families of bats. 16 are
Microchiroptera families while only 1 is a Megachiroptera family. |
Genus Genus Myotis
Genus is the first part of an organism’s scientific name. The
first letter is always capitalized, and the word is underlined or italicized. Myotis
means mouse-eared. |
There are 177 genera of bats. 135 genera
belong to the Microchiroptera families, while 42 belong to the Megachiroptera family. |
Species lucifugus
The species is the second part of the scientific name. All letters
are lower-case and the word is underlined or italicized. |
There are 925 different species of bats
around the world. 759 species are Microchiroptera and 166 species are
Megachiroptera. |
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