Microbats are defined as bats who primarily use echolocation for navigation and finding food. All bats are in the order Chiroptera. ‘Chiro’ (like chiropractor) means ‘hand’, ‘ptera’ (like pterodactyl) means ‘wing’. The wing of a bat is very similar to our hand (and arm) in bone structure but with elongated metacarpals.
Micro-chiroptera and Mega-chiroptera = Microbats and Megabats
There are two different classifications for bats. In the first, bats can be divided into two groups, based on morphology and behaviour. These groups are Microchiroptera (microbats) and Megachiroptera (megabats) and echolocation is the crucial difference between them. Some microbats are larger than some megabats so size is not always a reliable difference. All microbats rest with the wings folded along their forearms. Megabats do this too but often have their wings wrapped across their bodies. Megabats all eat fruit and/or nectar, but some also occasionally eat insects. Most microbats eat insects, but some also eat fruit and nectar. Some microbats of course are also carnivorous, or eat fish, spiders or blood. It is difficult to find any absolute difference between the two groups other than echolocation. Even then, there is a megabat, the Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus egyptiacus that uses a type of echolocation within its cave roosts. It does this by clicking its tongue, not the larynx echolocation method of microbats, where air passes over the vocal cords.
Yinptero-chiroptera and Yango-chiroptera
In the second classification, bats are also divided into two groups but based on morphological, molecular (genetic) and fossil evidence. This evidence shows that all the leaf-nosed microbats have more in common with the megabats and so they are in Yinptero-chiroptera. The rest of the microbats and by far the most, are in Yango-chiroptera. Think of the ‘Yin’ group as the leaf-nosed microbats and the ‘Yang’ group as the rest of the microbats, as in the previous classification system. The ‘Ptero’ group represent the megabats from the first classification system.