Visored bat
species of mammal
The visored bat, (Sphaeronycteris toxophyllum), is a bat species from tropical South America. It is the only species in the genus Sphaeronycteris. Although visored bats have some unique characteristics, they are thought to be most closely related to little white-shouldered bats and wrinkle-faced bats.
Description
Visored bats range from 52 to 63 millimetres (2.0 to 2.5 in) in head-body length. They have greyish-brown fur becoming paler towards the front of the body, grey or brownish-white underparts, and white spots on each shoulder and just below the ears. They have a rounded head, with a short, hairless, snout, a wide mouth, and bulging golden-brown eyes. The ears are triangular, with a narrow tragus. Their most distinctive feature, however, is the presence of the "visor" for which they are named - a structure not found in any other bat species.
The visor consists of a horny outgrowth above and behind the horseshoe-shaped nose-leaf. In females it is a relatively small ridge-like structure, and located above the centre of each eye, from where it connects to a central ridge behind the nose-leaf.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q332153. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Visored bat” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.