Lavia frons
TAXONOMY
Megaderma frons (Geoffroy, 1810), Senegal.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
French: Chauve-souris orangée.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
These are medium-sized bats, with forearm lengths ranging from 2.0–2.5 in (5.3–6.4 cm), and weighing 0.88–1.23 oz (25–35g). The combination of yellowish wings and ears and a long, blunt nose-leaf distinguish yellow-winged bats from the only other African megadermatid, Cardioderma cor. The bat's large ears, bifurcate tragi, and broad wings are typical for the family.
DISTRIBUTION
Widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, occurring from Gambia and Senegal through west Africa to Sudan, Ethiopia, and south to Malawi and Zambia. Also through Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, and northern Angola.
HABITAT
Inhabit savanna woodland.
BEHAVIOR
Roost by day 16.4–32.8 ft (5–10 m) above the ground, hanging from small branches in acacia trees. Roosting bats are alert and difficult to approach. Typically, one pair (adult male and adult female) occupies a territory and both members of the pair often move between roosts, apparently to follow shade. They use social calls that are audible to people, and also higher frequency calls in echolocation.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Insectivorous, they hunt well above the ground, taking flying insects as well as walking insects and other arthropods from surfaces such as foliage, the trunks, and limbs of trees. Other prey include termites, beetles, moths, katydids, and flies.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Appear to be monogamous, with pairs (one adult male, one adult female) remaining together at least through one reproductive season. At the end of the dry season after three-months gestation, females bear a single young annually. At first, foraging females carry their young, but later leave them alone when hunting. As they approach adult size, young bats hang by their hind feet from their mothers' shoulders and flap their wings, in preparation for their own flights.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
None known.
