Family Vespertilionidae
The family Vespertilionidae is also know as the Evening Bats.
All Vespertilionidae have a long tail completely inclosed in the tail membrane. All Malaysian species have a simple nose without a noseleaf, and small ears with a well-developed tragus.
The Vespertilionidae have over 400 species in 48 genera and they are found all over the world (except Antarctica). In Malaysia there are 14 genera and about 51 species, and so far we have found 27 species in Krau.
With so many species, the family has been divided up into subfamilies, which helps us organize and understand the diversity a bit better. In Malaysia we have four subfamilies, each with distinctive features, and we will be seeing members of three of the subfamilies in this project. These subfamilies are:
- the Kerivoulinae — which includes all the species of Kerivoula as well as the Phoniscus
- the Murininae — which includes all the species of Murina
- the Vespertilioninae — which includes all the Myotis
Look at the figure below to see what the key features are for those three subfamilies.
The Kerivoulinae have funnel-shaped ears with a large flap on the outside of the ear, and pointed tragus. The Murininae have rounded ears and tubular nostrils. The Vespertilioninae have a simple nose, and a rounded ear with a shorter tragus.
Notice that family names always finish with idae and subfamilies with inae. So we talk about the subfamily Kerivoulinae which is a subfamily of the family Vespertilionidae. The Murininae is a subfamily of the Vespertilionidae and the Vespertilioninae is a subfamily of the Vesertilionidae. It’s pretty easy once you know the rules!
All the vespertilionid bats are insectivorous. Because there are so many species, their choice of roosts is very varied with species chosing caves, tree hollows, leaves, and even houses.
