The Luzon fruit bat, a member of the order Chiroptera, is a small bat that is common to Luzon island.[3] It exhibits dark blackish brown coloration, with a lighter color appearing on the abdominal area, usually grey.[2] It is nocturnal and has rather large eyes, especially for its small stature.[2] Luzon Fruit bats are identifiable by their ears, which are marked by red thickenings.[4]
The species exhibits sexual dimorphism in their cranial characters, particularly the skull.[5] The overall size of the skull is found to be larger in males, but females have a more heightened braincase.[5] Because of this, the females have a longer total body length, while both sexes have similar wing bone length.[5]
The Philippine Islands have wide fauna diversity. Under the order Chiroptera, the island is home to 73 species, 36 genera, and 6 families.[5] Luzon Fruit Bats are one of two species in the family Pteropodidae that have undergone radiation in Southeast Asia.[5] The Luzon Fruit Bat is restricted to Luzon Island, found on the Philippine archipelago.[6] They occupy three different regions on this island: the Cordillera Central Mountains, the Sierra Madre Mountains, and the Zambales Mountains.[7] It has been hypothesized that these three clades diverged from one another around 1.91 million years ago.[3]
The Luzon fruit bats are more abundant in montane primary forest.[4] But they have spread to well-developed secondary forest, as well as lowland, montane, and mossy forests.[4] Their distribution is found in an elevation range from 200 – 2250 meters (Heaney et al. 1998), but regions of middle elevation is preferred.[3] Because of their high elevation location, they are listed as a Least Concern.[1]
It is frugivorous; its diet consists mainly of fruit or nectar.[4] In their consumption of fruit, they help contribute to natural reforestation by dispersing seeds.[4] Due to a difference in cranial size, males and females tend to have different food preferences, based on what is most accessible to their body shape.[5]
Females have a long duplex uterus that is superficially joined at the cervix.[2] These bats produce one or two young per year.[7] And the distribution of embryo between the left and right uteri are relatively equal and no preference has been observed.[2] Research has concluded that females undergo delayed implantation, although the specific length of delay is unknown.[2]
Male members of the order Chiroptera have a wide morphological variation of primary reproductive structures.[8] Male Luzon fruit bats are no exception, as they display a form of migratory testes, in which their testes are located in the abdomen.[2] Additionally, these male bats have few spermatozoa in both their testes and epididymis, indicating that much of the sperm in not fully mature.[2]
^ abcdefghHeideman, Paul D., Jennifer A. Cummings, and Lawrence R. Heaney. "Reproductive timing and early embryonic development in an Old World fruit bat, Otopteropus cartilagonodus (Megachiroptera)." Journal of mammalogy 74.3 (1993): 621-630.
^ abcRoberts, Trina E. Divergence, diversity, distance, and disequilibrium: comparative phylogeography of six Philippine fruit bats (Chiroptera; Pteropodidae). Diss. University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, Committee on Evolutionary Biology, 2005.
^ abcdeHeaney, Lawrence R. "Synopsis of the mammalian fauna of the Philippine Islands." (1998).
^Alviola, Phillip A., et al. "Chapter 2: mammalian diversity patterns on Mount Palali, Caraballo Mountains, Luzon." Fieldiana Life and Earth Sciences(2011): 61-74.
^ abRuedas, L. A., J. R. Demboski, and R. V. Sison. "Morphological and ecological variation in Otopteropus cartilagonodus Kock, 1969 (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) from Luzon, Philippines." Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 107.1 (1994): 1-16.
