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| leaf-nosed bat |
Leaf-nosed bats is a general term for such bats as have on the snout upright leaf-like growths of highly sensitive membrane which is presumably of great assistance to them in making their way about in darkness and in finding and taking their insect-prey. These folds of skin are, naturally enough, called the nose-leaf, and may be comparatively small and simple, or so large as to form a grotesque mask, such as gives so extraordinary appearance to the horse-shoe and other leaf-nosed bats of the family
Rhinolophidae, and to the «false vampires» of the family
Nycteridae. North American bats show very little of this peculiarity. These complicated membranes are always fringed with long fine hairs, which serve the purpose of the tactile whiskers of cats, and the bats possessing this feature are more thoroughly nocturnal than those in which it is lacking or little developed.
