Pallas's long-tongued bat
Glossophaga soricina
— Where the name comes from
Glossophaga is “tongue eater”, or more exactly “one that eats with the tongue”, from the Greek glōssa and phageîn; soricina is the Latin “shrew-like”, for the long tapered muzzle. The common name recalls Peter Simon Pallas, who described the species in 1766 from Dutch South American material without ever setting foot in the Americas.
— Facts
- Group
- Mammals · Mammalia
- Order
- Bats
- Habitat
- Caves, tunnels, tree hollows; foraging in forest, gardens and cropland
- Range
- From northern Mexico to Argentina, and the Antilles
- Size
- 4.5–6 cm of body, 25 cm wingspan, 8–12 g
- Diet
- Nectar feeder — nectar and pollen, plus insects and fruit
- Lifespan
- Up to 12 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It hovers in front of flowers, like a hummingbird.
- 02
Its tongue has erectile papillae that fill with blood as it laps.
- 03
It is the only mammal known to both echolocate and see ultraviolet.
— What sets it apart
It sees ultraviolet, which no other echolocating mammal does. Many night-pollinated flowers reflect in the ultraviolet and look dull to a human eye, while to this bat they stand out; behavioural experiments have confirmed that it really does tell them apart. It follows that it does not rely on sonar to find food, but on sight and smell — and that the sonar serves it only to avoid collisions, which explains why in the phyllostomids the calls are weak and short.
