Mammals of the WorldGreater Mouse-tailed Bat
Rhinopoma microphyllum
- Order
- Chiroptera
- Family
- Rhinopomatidae
- Genus
- Rhinopoma
- IUCN status
- LC
- Distribution
- Morocco|Algeria|Tunisia?|Mauritania|Senegal|Mali|Burkina Faso|Benin|Cote d'Ivoire|Ghana|Guinea|Liberia|Sierra Leone|Togo|Niger|Nigeria|Chad|Central African Republic|Sudan|Ethiopia|Djibouti|Eritrea|Egypt|Libya?|Iran|Yemen|Oman|Saudi Arabia|Israel|Palestine|Jordan|Lebanon|Syria|United Arab Emirates|Iraq|Afghanistan|Pakistan|India|Bangladesh?|Myanmar?|Thailand?|Indonesia?
- Realm
- Afrotropic|Palearctic|Indomalaya
Other names: Larger Rat-tailed Bat
About this species
- Diet
- Exclusively insects; mainly beetles, also flies, lacewings and Hymenoptera
- Range
- North Africa, the Middle East and Asia east to India, Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia
The greater mouse-tailed bat is a bat in the mouse-tailed bat family found across North Africa, the Middle East and Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand. It eats only insects, and a study of its diet found it is mainly a beetle feeder in both maternity and summer roosts, with more variety in summer roosts, and other prey including flies, lacewings and Hymenoptera (Wikipedia, general species account).
Research in Israel found that it hibernates in caves at an unusually warm, constant temperature of about 20 °C. The cached account gives no description, measurements or breeding information, and nothing specific to India (Wikipedia, general species account).
Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)