Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Di­clidu­rus albus is rare but wide­spread, rang­ing from Mex­ico to east­ern Brazil. It is also found on some Caribbean Is­lands in­clud­ing Trinidad. Dur­ing the sum­mer months no sight­ings of D. albus have been made in Mex­ico, the north­ern edge of its range. This sug­gests that mem­bers of this species mi­grate south sea­son­ally, from May to Oc­to­ber. Lit­tle in­for­ma­tion is avail­able on D. albus mi­gra­tion pat­terns. (Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; Jones and Hood, 1993; Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; Jones and Hood, 1993; Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; Eisen­berg and Red­ford, 1999; Jones and Hood, 1993)

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical
  • native

Habi­tat

North­ern ghost bats pre­fer humid habi­tats like ri­par­ian and trop­i­cal rain­forests but have been found in hu­man-dis­turbed areas like plan­ta­tions, clear­ings, and over vil­lages. They pre­fer to roost un­der­neath the fronds of palms, in­clud­ing co­conut, cho­cho palms, and co­quito palms. These bats have also been seen in less mesic habi­tats, like de­cid­u­ous and ever­green forests. Di­clidu­rus albus mi­grates within the Neotrop­ics. They occur from sea level to 1500 m. They were ob­served at high­est el­e­va­tions in Costa Rica. (Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; Eisen­berg and Red­ford, 1999; Jones and Hood, 1993; LaVal, 2004)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• rainforest

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural
• riparian

• Range elevation

  0 to 1500 m

  0.00 to 4921.26 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Di­clidu­rus albus is a dis­tinc­tive look­ing bat species. The com­mon name, north­ern ghost bats, refers to their soft, long, white pelage. Some­times the prox­i­mal ends of the hairs are grey in color, while the dis­tal ends are white, giv­ing the an­i­mal an ashy grey tone. The pata­gia are pink­ish and translu­cent and the tail is short, about one third the length of the uropatag­ium. The tail punc­tures the uropatag­ium, with the end pro­ject­ing dor­sally. The uropatag­ium is large with about two-thirds cov­ered in fur, and ex­tends be­yond the hind feet. North­ern ghost bats have nearly naked faces with large eyes and shorter, yel­low­ish ears. They do not have a nose leaf, and their tra­gus is promi­nent, broad, and rounded. (Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; Eisen­berg and Red­ford, 1999; En­gstom and Lim, 1999; Jones and Hood, 1993; Vaughan, et al., 2000)

Di­clidu­rus albus lacks the wing sacs that other Em­bal­lonuri­dae have. In­stead, these bats have a unique gland on their uropatag­ium. This gland has two valves and is tri­an­gu­lar in shape. Its ac­tual func­tion isn’t known, but it is larger in males, and be­comes even more promi­nent dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. North­ern ghost bats have ves­ti­gial thumbs, un­like other species in the genus. (Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; En­gstom and Lim, 1999; Jones and Hood, 1993)

The skull is dis­tinc­tive. The ros­trum an­gles up­ward steeply from the brain­case. The zy­go­matic arches are com­plete and the skull has strong supra­or­bital ridges. Pre­max­il­lae do not meet and have nasal branches only. The ca­nines pro­ject for­ward and out­ward. The den­tal for­mula is I: 1/3, C: 1/1, PM: 2/2, M: 3/3 = 32. Cheek teeth are dil­amb­dodont and have cin­gula. (Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; Jones and Hood, 1993; Vaughan, et al., 2000)

North­ern ghost bats are at the larger end of the size range for Em­bal­lonuri­dae, with total lengths rang­ing from 86.0 mm to 103.0 mm. Tail lengths vary be­tween 18.0 mm and 22.0 mm. Di­clidu­rus albus dif­fers from its con­geners in that the length of its fore­arm is be­tween 60 mm and 70 mm, while other species of this genus have fore­arms less than 60 mm or above 70 mm, or are dis­tin­guished by brown­ish pelage. Adult D. albus weigh be­tween 17 and 24 g. They are sex­u­ally di­mor­phic; fe­males tend to be larger in size and length, but this varies re­gion­ally. For ex­am­ple, in Mex­ico, both sexes were very sim­i­lar in all mea­sure­ments. The av­er­age fe­male length was 88.0 mm, with the av­er­age male length being 89.0 mm. In Guatemala, how­ever, fe­males were about 10 mm longer than the males, with an av­er­age length of 102.0 mm com­pared to 92.5 mm for males. Sam­ple sizes are rel­a­tively small, how­ever, and more re­search is needed to ver­ify the pres­ence of sex­ual di­mor­phism in D. albus. (Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; En­gstom and Lim, 1999; Her­nan­dez, et al., 1985; Jones and Hood, 1993; Vaughan, et al., 2000)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Range mass

  17.0 to 24.0 g

  0.60 to 0.85 oz

• Average mass

  20.0 g

  0.70 oz

• Range length

  86.0 to 103.0 mm

  3.39 to 4.06 in

• Range wingspan

  63.0 to 69.2 mm

  2.48 to 2.72 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

There is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion on the mat­ing sys­tem of D. albus. North­ern ghost bats are soli­tary ex­cept dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. Dur­ing this time, small groups of bats can been seen roost­ing very close to­gether. There is usu­ally a max­i­mum of four in­di­vid­u­als, and the group con­sists of one male and mul­ti­ple fe­males. The tri­an­gu­lar gland pre­sent on the uropatag­ium of D. albus grows in size dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, and may be used by males to at­tract fe­males. (Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; Jones and Hood, 1993)

• Mating System
• polygynous

Breed­ing oc­curs dur­ing the months of Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary. Preg­nant fe­males have been found be­tween the months of Jan­u­ary and June. Sin­gle young are usu­ally born in May or June. The breed­ing sea­son oc­curs only once a year, so D. albus is mon­estrus. The tim­ing of wean­ing and the age at sex­ual ma­tu­rity are un­known. Di­clidu­rus albus is a rare an­i­mal to see, so its re­pro­duc­tive be­hav­iors have yet to be stud­ied in depth. (Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; Her­nan­dez, et al., 1985; Jones and Hood, 1993)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Northern ghost bats breed once per year.

• Breeding season

  Diclidurus albus breeds during January and February.

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 1

Like most other bats, fe­males care for their young by nurs­ing and pro­tect­ing them. Young bats ma­ture quickly and be­come in­de­pen­dent within a few months of their birth. (Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988)

• Parental Investment
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

North­ern ghost bat lifes­pans have not been stud­ied.

Be­hav­ior

North­ern ghost bats are soli­tary. They do not form colonies and are found in small groups only dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. North­ern ghost bats are noc­tur­nal and roost under palms dur­ing the day. They tend to fly high and in rea­son­ably straight lines. Most stud­ies of D. albus have fo­cused on phys­i­cal prop­er­ties in­stead of be­hav­ioral char­ac­ter­is­tics, so the be­hav­ior of this species is not well known. (Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; Eisen­berg and Red­ford, 1999; En­gstom and Lim, 1999; Jones and Hood, 1993)

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• nocturnal
• motile
• migratory
• solitary

Home Range

The home range size for D. albus is un­known.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

North­ern ghost bats use echolo­ca­tion to find prey and to nav­i­gate their way through the night­time for­est. They emit a call at 22 kHz while hunt­ing. No in­for­ma­tion is avail­able about com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween in­di­vid­ual bats, al­though chem­i­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tion is likely, in­clud­ing the use of gland se­cre­tions by males. (Zor­pette, 1999)

• Communication Channels
• acoustic
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• ultrasound
• echolocation
• chemical

Food Habits

Like all mem­bers of the fam­ily Em­bal­lonuri­dae, north­ern ghost bats are in­sec­tiv­o­rous. Stom­ach con­tents have a high pro­por­tion of moths. (Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; Eisen­berg and Red­ford, 1999; En­gstom and Lim, 1999; Jones and Hood, 1993)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore

• Animal Foods
• insects

Pre­da­tion

North­ern ghost bats are noc­tur­nal and soli­tary, which helps to pro­tect them from many preda­tors. Pre­da­tion on north­ern ghost bats has not been recorded.

Ecosys­tem Roles

North­ern ghost bat in­di­vid­u­als eat around 1,000 in­sects a night. This could af­fect in­sect pop­u­la­tions. These bats are rare, so their ef­fect on the ecosys­tem are prob­a­bly slight and can only be a hy­poth­e­sized based on the ef­fects of other bats in the area. Also, bat guano is very im­por­tant to plants, pro­vid­ing ex­cel­lent fer­til­izer. (Zor­pette, 1999)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

North­ern ghost bats may be im­por­tant in help­ing keep agri­cul­tural pest pop­u­la­tions in check, but their rar­ity sug­gests that they might not con­tribute much to in­sect con­trol. Also, be­cause this bat is at­trac­tively col­ored and rare, may help draw eco­tourists to an area. With knowl­edge­able guides, night­time bat tours can at­tract tourists. (Lim and En­gstrom, 2005; Zor­pette, 1999)

• Positive Impacts
• ecotourism
• produces fertilizer
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Like most wild mam­mals, north­ern ghost bats can trans­mit ra­bies to hu­mans and other an­i­mals. How­ever, ra­bies trans­mis­sion to hu­mans is rare. (Jones and Hood, 1993)

• Negative Impacts
• injures humans
  • causes disease in humans
  • carries human disease
• causes or carries domestic animal disease

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

IUCN lists D. albus as being at lower risk and least con­cern. Al­though north­ern ghost bats are rare through­out their range, they are wide­spread. (Chi­roptera Spe­cial­ist Group 1996, 2004)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Other Com­ments

Two sub­species are some­times rec­og­nized, D. a. albus and D. a. virgo. Pre­vi­ously, Di­clidu­rus scu­ta­tus was con­sid­ered a syn­onym of D. albus, but is now con­sid­ered a sep­a­rate species, about which very lit­tle is known. Con­tro­versy abounds over who de­serves the credit for nam­ing D. albus. Oken may have been re­spon­si­ble, but credit is usu­ally given to Wied (1820). No fos­sils are known for the en­tire genus Di­clidu­rus. Other com­mon names in­clude murciélagos blan­cos (Span­ish), and gespen­st­flie­der­maus (Ger­man). The generic name, Di­clidu­rus arises from the gland on the tail. The Latin word di­clid means two-valved, and urus means tail. Albus in Latin means white, and re­lates to the white fur of these bats. (Ce­bal­los and Medellin, 1988; Jones and Hood, 1993)

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Ash­ley Potchynok (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Ce­bal­los, G., R. Medellin. 1988. Di­clidu­rus albus. Mam­malian Species, 316: 1-4.

Chi­roptera Spe­cial­ist Group 1996, 2004. "Di­clidu­rus albus" (On-line). The IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species. Ac­cessed March 21, 2006 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​search/​details.​php?​species=6561.

Eisen­berg, J., K. Red­ford. 1999. Mam­mals of the Neotrop­ics: The Cen­tral Neotrop­ics: Ecuador, Peru, Bo­livia, Brazil. Chicago: Uni­ver­sity of Chicago Press.

En­gstom, M., B. Lim. 1999. "North­ern Ghost Bat" (On-line). Iwokrama. Ac­cessed March 21, 2006 at http://​www.​iwokrama.​org/​mammals/​guides/​bats0.​html#​dial.

Her­nan­dez, C., C. Tapia, A. Gar­duno, E. Corona, M. Hi­dalgo. 1985. Notes on Dis­tri­b­u­tion and Re­pro­duc­tion of Bats from Coastal Re­gions of Mi­choa­can, Mex­ico. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 66/3: 549-553. Ac­cessed March 21, 2006 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​view/​00222372/​ap050268/​05a00170/​0.

Jones, J., C. Hood. 1993. Syn­op­sis of South Amer­i­can Bats of the Fam­ily Em­bal­lonuri­dae. Oc­ca­sional Pa­pers The Mu­seum Texas Tech Uni­ver­sity, 155: 1-32. Ac­cessed March 21, 2006 at http://​www.​loyno.​edu/​~chood/joneshood1993.​pdf.

LaVal, R. 2004. Im­pact of Global Warm­ing and Lo­cally Chang­ing Cli­mate on Trop­i­cal Cloud For­est Bats. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 85/2: 237-244.

Lim, B., M. En­gstrom. 2005. Mam­mals of Iwokrama For­est. Pro­ceed­ings of the Acad­emy of Nat­ural Sci­ences of Philadel­phia, 154: 71-108.

Vaughan, T., J. Ryan, N. Czaplewski. 2000. Mam­mal­ogy Fourth Edi­tion. Aus­tralia: Brooks/Cole.

Zor­pette, G. 1999. Chas­ing the Ghost Bat. Sci­en­tific Amer­i­can, 280/6: 82-89.