Syconycteris

Syconycteris is a genus of megabat in the family Pteropodidae. There are three described species at present, with more likely to be added. Members of this genus are found in Indonesia, New Guinea and Australia. Their diet mainly consists of nectar and fruit, making them important for pollination and seed dispersal in their environment.

Syconycteris
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Pteropodidae
Subfamily: Macroglossinae
Genus: Syconycteris
Matschie, 1899

Syconycteris bats play an especially important role as pollinators for flowers that require an explosive opening such as Mucuna macrocarpa. This is where the stamen and pistill are covered until exposed by an animal. Syconycteris opens the flower by pushing their snout into the basal section between the banner and carina and then pressing their wings to open. Syconycteris bats are primary pollinators as the pollen of explosively opened flowers sticks to their fur.[1]

Syconycteris is a long tongued nectar feeding bat. They are small compared to other megabats and swarm around tall fruit trees.[2] Like closely related Macroglossus species, their vocalizations consist of a long series of similar trill like bursts with high repetition rate and small changes in dominant frequency. They vocalize when distressed and when fighting against other bats over food.[3] The similarity to the echolocating bat Rousettus has led to hypthotheses that Syconycteris is also capable of echolocation.[3]

The Etolo tribe of New Guinea will sometimes include Syconycteris bats in their diet, along with other bats.[4]

Syconycteris is unique among megabats bats because they do not produce spats. Spats are created by slow feeding bats that chew and swallow the juices of their food while pressing the pulp and seeds into a spat or wadge which is then spit out. This makes them more effective seed dispersers because seeds in spats tend to travel less distance and are more vulnerable to fungi compared to seeds that are defecated like those eaten by Syconycteris.[5]

Taxonomy

They are part of the Australasian nectarivorous clade along with the genus Macroglossus.[6] Its placement in this clade has changed over time as studies in DNA testing have grown more in depth. Previously the two were thought to make up Cynopterinae,[3] but it was later found the Cynopterinae is monophyletic and not closely related to Syconycteris.[7] The experiment was the most inclusive analysis of molecular data for pteropodids to date. It used data from five loci. Four mitochondrial and one nuclear gene representing 43 species including exemplars from seven cynopterine genera. Later reanalysis with more sequences using different substitution to gap costs resulted in the current classification. Inclusion of 236 non-molecular characters, mostly morphological, supported the trees. Nyctimeninae and Cynopterinae were found to not be closely related to Syconycteris as previously thought because both are monophyletic.[7] Grouping Syconycteris with Macroglossus has been supported by further studies into mitochondrial DNA.[8] Syconycteris has appeared only recently in the fossil records with no ancestor fossils recovered yet.[9]

Species

Genus Syconycteris

References
  1. KOBAYASHI, Shun; IZAWA, Masako; DENDA, Tetsuo; MASHIBA, Shigehiko; DOI, Teruo; IWAMOTO, Toshitaka (2015). "Appearance of New Relationship between Mucuna macrocarpa (Fabaceae) and Japanese Macaque as Pollination Partner: Indirect Effect of Afforestation Policy". Primate Research. 31 (1): 39–47. doi:10.2354/psj.31.003. ISSN 0912-4047.
  2. Archbold, Richard. (1933). Richard Archbolds journal : First Archbold Expedition to New Guinea. [s.n.] doi:10.5962/bhl.title.136011.
  3. Schoeman, M. Corrie; Goodman, Steven M. (December 2012). "Vocalizations in the Malagasy Cave-Dwelling Fruit Bat,Eidolon dupreanum: Possible Evidence of Incipient Echolocation?". Acta Chiropterologica. 14 (2): 409–416. doi:10.3161/150811012x661729. ISSN 1508-1109.
  4. Dwyer, Peter D. (August 1985). "The contribution of non‐domesticated animals to the diet of Etolo, southern highlands province, Papua New Guinea". Ecology of Food and Nutrition. 17 (2): 101–115. doi:10.1080/03670244.1985.9990885. ISSN 0367-0244.
  5. Muscarella, Robert; Fleming, Theodore H. (November 2007). "The Role of Frugivorous Bats in Tropical Forest Succession". Biological Reviews. 82 (4): 573–590. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.472.9703. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185x.2007.00026.x. ISSN 1464-7931.
  6. Romagnoli, Michael L.; Springer, Mark S. (2000). Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 7 (4): 259–284. doi:10.1023/a:1009485731963. ISSN 1064-7554. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  7. Almeida, Francisca C.; Giannini, Norberto P.; DeSalle, Rob; Simmons, Nancy B. (December 2009). "The phylogenetic relationships of cynopterine fruit bats (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae: Cynopterinae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 53 (3): 772–783. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2009.07.035. ISSN 1055-7903. PMID 19660560.
  8. Ibrahim, N. J.; Md-Zain, B. M.; Yaakop, S. (2013). "Relationships between parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Opiinae), fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) and their host plants based on 16S rRNA, 12S rRNA, and ND1 gene sequences". American Institute of Physics Conference Series. AIP Conference Proceedings. AIP Publishing LLC. 1571 (1): 340–344. Bibcode:2013AIPC.1571..340I. doi:10.1063/1.4858679.
  9. Eiting, Thomas P.; Gunnell, Gregg F. (2009-07-10). "Global Completeness of the Bat Fossil Record". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 16 (3): 151–173. doi:10.1007/s10914-009-9118-x. ISSN 1064-7554.
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