Pictures and facts about the Flower bats

buffy flower bat	Jamaican flower bat
Images are copyrighted by their owners

Flower bats

Order : Chiroptera
Family : Phyllostomidae
Subfamily : Phyllonycterinae

Facts about the subfamily Phyllonycterinae, the flower bats

Glossophagine phyllostomids, also known as flower bats, are important neotropical pollinators that regularly engage in hovering, albeit for relatively short periods (Winter and von Helversen, 2001). (Full text)

Hovering in flower bats is associated with a partial supination of distal wing regions that yields vertically oriented lift during the upstroke (von Helversen, 1986). (Full text)

Other subspecies are found from SW Untied States to Guatemala, the Antilles and the Bahamas Buffy Flower Bat (Erophylla sezekorni syops) (species endemic to Caribbean) Buffy Flower Bats are another rare and beautiful local species. (Full text)