Anoura is a genus of leaf-nosed bats from Central and South America. Anoura members lack or have a short tail, and are nectarivorous bats of small to medium size among the Phyllostomidae.
Etymology The genus Anoura was described in 1838 by British zoologist John Edward Gray. The type species for the genus was the Geoffroy's tailless bat, Anoura geoffroyi. The etymology of the genus name Anoura corresponds to the two ancient greek words (), expressing the "absence" (this prefix is an alpha privative), and (), meaning "animal tail". It refers to the tailless character of these bats.
Note that Anoura, the bat genus, should not be confused with neither 'Anura', an order of amphibians, nor 'Anoures', the original spelling of this order.
Description Anoura species are small, with head and body lengths ranging from . Forearm lengths for the genus are . They either totally lack tails or have very short tails of . They have elongated snouts, as is seen in Glossophaga bat species. Similar again to Glossophaga, these species have tongues with lingual papillae.
Biology Anoura species consume nectar, pollen, and insects.
Systematics Anoura aequatoris– While a 2006 morphological study suggested elevating Anoura caudifera aequatoris to species level,Mantilla-Meluk, H., & Baker, R. J. (2006). Systematics of small Anoura (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from Colombia, with description of a new species. Museum of Texas Tech University. this conclusion has been challenged. Some believe that it is not distinct enough to warrant separation from A. caudifera, and that further analysis is needed.Calderón-Acevedo, C. A., & Muchhala, N. C. Species limits in the Neotropical Bat Genus Anoura Gray. Group, 40, 50. A 2008 study challenged that elevating it to a species overstated the amount of diversity within the genus, and that it should remain a subspecies.Jarrín-V, P., & Kunz, T. H. (2008). Taxonomic history of the genus Anoura (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) with insights into the challenges of morphological species delimitation. Acta Chiropterologica, 10(2), 257-269. Cadena's tailless bat, A. cadenai– The same 2006 study as above split A. cadenai away from A. caudifer. It was challenged by the same 2008 study based on the overall small sample size of the 2006 study, and the small morphological differences between A. caudifer and A. cadenai. A. caudifer has subsequently been considered monotypic by others, disregarding A. cadenai. Tailed tailless bat, A. caudifer Handley's tailless bat, A. cultrata Tube-lipped nectar bat, A. fistulata Geoffroy's tailless bat, A. geoffroyi Anoura javieri Broad-toothed tailless bat, A. latidens Luis Manuel's tailless bat, A. luismanueli Anoura peruana
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