Hairy-legged Vampire Bat

Hairy-legged Vampire Bat
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Chiroptera
Family:	Phyllostomidae
Subfamily:	Desmodontinae
Genus:	Diphylla Spix, 1823
Species:	D. ecaudata
Binomial name
Diphylla ecaudata Spix, 1823

The Hairy-legged Vampire Bat (Diphylla ecaudata) is one of three species of vampire bat. Despite connotations of vampires, it mainly feeds on the blood of birds. This vampire bat lives mainly in tropical and subtropical forestlands of South America. It is the sole member of the genus Diphylla.

It generally rests during the daylight with less than twelve other bats in a cave, although a cave was once found with 35 bats. It also shares its food via regurgitation, mouth to mouth.^[2]

It also has good sight, but poor echolocation.^[3] It is often found in caves with the Common Vampire Bat (Desmodus rotundus), but it is a solitary bat and does not form groups like Desmodus. There are no lingual grooves under the tongue as in Desmodus and Diaemus but it does have a groove along the roof of the mouth which may serve as a "blood gutter".^[4]

As with all mammals, it can be a carrier of rabies.

Subspecies

There are two recognized subspecies

• Diphylla ecaudata centralis is found from western Panama to Mexico.
• Diphylla ecaudata ecaudata is found from Brazil and eastern Peru to eastern Panama.

Footnotes

1. ^ Sampaio, E., Lim, B. & Peters, S. (2008). Diphylla ecaudata. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 28 February 2009.
2. ^ Elizalde-Arellano C, López-Vidal JC, Arroyo-Cabrales J, Medellín RA, Laundré JW. 2006. Food sharing behavior in the hairy-legged vampire bat Diphylla ecaudata. Acta Chiropterologica. 8:314-319.
3. ^ http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?recNum=MA0542
4. ^ A.M. Greenhall and U. Schmidt, editors. 1988. Natural History of Vampire Bats, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida. ISBN 0849367506; ISBN 978-0849367502, pp. 125-128.

References

• Greenhall, Arthur M. 1961. Bats in Agriculture. A Ministry of Agriculture Publication. Trinidad and Tobago.