Long-tongued nectar bat
Macroglossus minimus
— Where the name comes from
Macroglossus is “large tongue”, from the Greek makrós and glōssa; minimus is the Latin “smallest”. The binomial states exactly the contradiction this animal is: the smallest fruit bat in the world, with a tongue out of all proportion to the rest and covered in thread-like papillae that work as the bristles of a brush.
— Facts
- Group
- Mammals · Mammalia
- Order
- Bats
- Habitat
- Mangroves, coastal forest, banana plantations
- Range
- South-East Asia, New Guinea, northern Australia, Pacific islands
- Size
- 6–8 cm of body, 25 cm wingspan, 12–23 g
- Diet
- Nectar feeder — nectar and pollen, above all of banana and mangrove
- Lifespan
- Little known in the wild
— Characteristics
- 01
It is the smallest fruit bat in the world: it weighs as much as two coins.
- 02
The tongue is covered in fine papillae that draw up nectar by capillary action.
- 03
It has reduced teeth and weak jaws: it chews almost nothing.
— What sets it apart
It is the chief pollinator of the mangroves of the genus Sonneratia, whose flowers open at dusk, last a single night and are built like a brush of stamens facing upwards — a landing platform for something arriving in the dark. The match is so close that where the bat disappears the mangrove produces very little fruit, and with it thins the belt of vegetation that shields the coast from storm surge. An animal of twenty grams holds up a piece of coastal defence.
