microbat
- noun
- /ˈmaɪkroʊbæt/
:
micromurciélago
- In tropical forests, microbats can be seen darting around as they hunt for food.
Examples
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Microbats use their large ears to locate insects in the dark night sky.
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Megabats, which range from 15 to 1,500 grams (g) in body mass, differ from microbats, which range from 2 to 160 g, in their sensory and feeding ecology.
Academic text (2008) -
I focus mainly on recent field studies and on globally distributed microbats.
Academic text (2008) -
The phylogenetic relationship between the two groups of bats is complex, with megabats nesting among microbat lineages.
Academic text (2008) -
However, because many bat species (and microbats in particular) have cryptic lifestyles, their behavior is often difficult to investigate in the field.
Academic text (2008) -
Female bats nurse their young until they reach almost the size of the mother, which, in microbats, usually requires three weeks to two months (Barclay and Harder 2003).
Academic text (2008) -
Scientists have discovered that microbats play a vital role in controlling insect populations.
Synonyms
A bat that eats insects and finds them by using sound
A large group of bats that eat insects, not fruit
Bats that mostly eat insects and use sound to find prey
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word microbat comes from the prefix micro- meaning 'small', as in microphone and microscope, plus bat, the flying animal. So a microbat is a 'small' bat, often the insect-eating kind that uses sound to find its prey.