The smallest bat is the bumblebee bat, Craseonycteris thonglongyai, also called Kitti's hognose bat. It weighs about 2 grams (less than a nickel) and has a wingspan of about 5 inches (13 cm). It is also the smallest mammal, and an endangered species.
J. E. Hill.
A new family, genus and species of bat (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from Thailand.
Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), vol. 27, pages 301–336 (1974).
Paul J. J. Bates, Tin Nwe, K. M. Swe, and Si Si Hla Bu.
Further new records of bats from Myanmar (Burma), including Craseonycteris
thonglongyai Hill 1974 (Chiroptera: Craseonycteridae).
Acta Chiropterologica vol. 3, number 1, pages 33-41 (2001).
www.sc.psu.ac.th/batdb/Data/Details.asp?no=22
Grey-headed Flying Fox
©iStockphoto.com/Craig Dingle
The largest bat is the flying fox (Pteropus giganteus), an Old World bat found on tropical islands from Sri Lanka east. A large adult weighs about 1.2 kilograms, with a wingspan of almost 2 meters (about 6 feet). It eats fruit and is harmless to people, but its importation into the United States is forbidden because of the damage it might do to fruit tree crops.
An excellent Web site on bats, including directions for building bat houses, is www.batcon.org
Gerhard Neuweiler.
Ellen Covey, translator.
The Biology of Bats.
New York: Oxford, 2000.
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Last revised: 28 January 2010.