The golden-tipped bat (Phoniscus papuensis) is a species of Microchiropteran in the family Vespertilionidae.[2] It is found in Papua New Guinea and in Australia, especially scattered along the eastern part of Australia.[3] The species is considered uncommon,[4] and is listed as endangered in Australia.[5]
The golden-tipped bat has brown color and broken color patterns on its pelage;[3] the body is covered with woolly fur.[5] Broken color patterns support crypsis in the golden-tipped bat;[5] thick pelage and wooly fur provide thermal insulation.[5] The average weight of adults is 6.7g.[5]
The wings of the golden-tipped bat show a low aspect ratio, with low wing loading. (That is, the wing is broad.) These wing features of support slow flight.[6][7] Additionally, the large tail membrane aids the wing membrane in enabling tight turns in flight.[6][7] Rounded wing tips also contribute to high maneuverability in flight.[6][7]
The golden-tipped bat also uses echolocation for foraging, with frequencies of approximately 155 kHz to 60 kHz.[6]
The golden-tipped bat has been mainly recorded in rainforest or wet sclerophyll forest.[3] It has also been recorded in dry sclerophyll forest. They live at elevations up to 1,000m.[3]
They make diurnal roosts ranging from 0.5 to 9.0m above the ground,[5] roosting on the branches of trees or in tree hollows.[5] Female bats use the canopy of a tree for a maternity site;[5] Roosts, and their broken patterns of pelage, enable this species to hide from their predators.[5]
Araneida such as orb-weaver and big-jawed spiders are the main food of golden-tipped bats; as shown by the high proportion of Araneida body fragments among the particles lodged among the bats' teeth and fur.[6] Even though Araneida is a major food source for the golden-tipped bat, these bats also consume insects which belong to the insect orders Coleoptera (beetles) and Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths).[6]
The golden-tipped bat uses multiple foraging strategies to hunt. One is ground gleaning.[6] They also hover-glean, flying slowly and taking prey from elevated places such as high tree trunks.[6] The golden tipped bat use broad bandwidth echolocation to find precise localization of a target. Additionally, they use high frequency echolocation to find stationary prey such as spiders on their webs.[6]
^Parnaby, H; Mills, D (December 1994). "A Record of the Gold-tipped Bat from the Escarpment Forests". Australian Zoologist. 29: 3–4. doi:10.7882/AZ.1994.013.
^SCHULZ, M (1995). "Utilisation of suspended bird nests by the Golden-tipped Bat (kerivoula papuensis) in Australia". Mammalia. 59 (2): 280–283.
^ abcdefghiSchulz, M (1999). "Roosts used by the golden-tipped bat Kerivoula papuensis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae)". Journal of Zoology. 250 (4): 467–478. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2000.tb00790.x.
^ abcRhodes, Martin (1995). "Wing Morphology and Flight Behaviour of the Golden-tipped Bat, Phoniscus papuensis(Dobson) (Chiroptera:Vespertilionidae)". Australian Journal of Zoology. 43 (6): 657–63. doi:10.1071/zo9950657.
