Leaf-Nosed Bat Facts

Most leaf-nosed bats are insectivorous but the family, called the Phyllostomidae, includes vampire bats. Vampire bats are believed to kill 100,000 cattle every year in Latin America by infecting them with rabies. All 148 species of leaf-nosed bat live in the New World. The California leaf-nosed bat (Macrotus californicus), found in California, Arizona and Nevada as well as northern Mexico, is the only species present in the United States.

  1. Description

    • The largest leaf-nosed bat is also known as the spectral bat or false vampire bat and has a wingspan of over 30 inches. It is the largest bat species in the New World and the largest carnivorous bat in the world. The smallest leaf-nosed bats are insectivorous species less than two inches long. All have broad wings and a fleshy, leaf-like nose structure believed to amplify and control their echolocation calls, acting almost like a lens. Most species are gray or dark brown, but the Honduran white bat (Ectophylla alba) is pure white.

    Range

    • Leaf-nosed bats can be found throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the New World from central Chile and Argentina up the southern United States. There are also fruit-eating species living in the West Indies, and vampire bat fossils have been found in Cuba and the southern United States.

    Habitat

    • Most leaf-nosed bats are forest species, although the family also includes desert bats. Species density is highest in lowland, tropical forests in northern South America and Central America.

    Behavior

    • Leaf-nosed bats tend to sleep alone or in small groups in caves during the day, although some species, such as the Honduran white bat make tents by clipping large leaves into a tent-like structure. Other species, such as the greater spear-nosed bat (Phyllostomus hastatus), live in communal roosts of several hundred or even thousand individual bats. Some species, such as vampire bats and the spectral bat are known to share food with others in their roosts.

    Diet

    • A large majority of leaf-nosed bats are insectivorous, although some species feed on fruit, nectar, vertebrates and blood. The family use low-frequency sounds to detect the location of nearby prey as well as finding food with their large eyes. Hunting species home in on prey, such as calling frogs and crickets, using their excellent hearing. Nectar and fruit eating species are important pollinators and seed dispersers for a number of commercially important plants, including cashews, figs and palms.