Noctilionoidea

Introduction

The superfamily Noctilionoidea includes four families: Mystacinidae, Noctilionidae, Mormoopidae, and Phyllostomidae. Mystacinidae and Noctilionidae each include one genus and two species, while Mormoopidae contains two genera and eight species (Koopman, 1993). In contrast, Phyllostomidae includes 48 genera and 138 species (Koopman, 1993), making it the third largest family within Chiroptera.

Food preference varies among taxa in Noctilionoidea, with species variably specialized to feed principally on insects, other animals (e.g., rodents, birds, and other bats), nectar, pollen, fruit, or blood. Many of these bats have unusally facial ornimentation, including nose-leafs, leaf-chin flaps, swollen lips and other projections in the labio-nasal region.

Characteristics

1. m. hyoglossus originates from lateral basihyal and lateral thyrohyal in two sheets separated by a space.
2. clitoris elongated.
   

Discussion of Phylogenetic Relationships

A close relationship between Phyllostomidae, Mormoopidae, and Noctilionidae has long been recognized (see review in Simmons and Geisler, 1998). Mormoopidae was once considered a subfamily within Phyllostomidae, but Smith (1972) raised it to family level. Available data supports either a sister taxa relationship between Mormoopidae and Phyllostomidae, with Noctilionidae as sister to that clade (Van Valen, 1979; Simmons, 1998; Kirsch et al., In press), or Mormoopidae and Noctilionidae as sister taxa, with Phyllostomidae as sister to them (Simmons and Geisler, 1998).

It is only recently that Mystacinidae has been associated with Noctilionidae, Mormoopidae and Phyllostomidae. Mystacinidae was historically placed with Molossidae and/or Verspertilionidae (e.g., Simmons and Geisler, 1998) but morphological data have been largely inconclusive concerning the exact affinities of this small family. However, immunological data (Pierson, 1986; Pierson et al., 1986) and DNA-hybridization data (Kirsch et al., in press) strongly supported placement of Mystacinidae within Noctilionoidea. Kirsch et al. suggested that Mystacina is the sister-group of all other noctilionoids, a hypothesis which is compatible with available morphological data.

Geographic Distribution

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The geographical distribution of Noctilionoidea is shown in red. Distribution from Hill and Smith (1984).

References

Hill, J.E., and J.D. Smith. 1984. Bats: a natural history. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Koopman, K. F. 1983. Order Chiroptera. In Mammal species of the world, a taxonomic and geographic reference, 2nd ed. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder. Washinton, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Kirsch, J. A., J. M. Hutcheon, D. G. Byrnes & B. D. Lloyd. 1998. Affinites and historical zoogeography of the New Zealand Short-tailed bat, Mystacina tuberculata Gray 1843, inferred from DNA-hybridization comparisons. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 5(1): 33-64.

Pierson, E. D. 1986. Molecular systematics of the Mircochiroptera: higher taxon relationships and biogeography. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley.

Pierson, E .D., V. M. Sarich, J. M. Lowenstein, M. J. Daniel & W. E. Rainey. 1986. A molecular link between the bats of New Zealand and South America. Nature 323: 60-63.

Simmons, N. B. 1998. A reappraisal of interfamilial relationships of bats. In Bats: Phylogeny, Morphology, Echolocation and Conservation Biology. T.H. Kunz and P.A. Racey (eds.). Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Simmons, N. B. & J. H. Geisler. 1998. Phylogenetic relationships of Icaronycteris, Archeonycteris, Hassianycteris, and Palaeochiropteryx to extant bat lineages, with comments on the evolution of echolocation and foraging strategies in microchiroptera. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 235:1-182.

Van Valen, T. A. 1979. The evolution of bats. Evolutionary Theory, 4:104-121.