In the month of Halloween, it is timely to celebrate the diversity of bats in this Species in the Spotlight virtual issue, focussing on the megabat family Pteropodidae, the fruit bats (Acerodon) and flying foxes (Pteropus). The Family contains the largest of the bat species, but most are unlikely to strike fear into any trick-or-treaters, with their mostly herbivorous diet. Unusually for a group of bats, they do not echolocate (with a very few exceptions). Welcome to our celebration of the megabats!
Not long after the family was first described by John Edward Gray in 1821, Transactions of the Zoological Society of London and Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London were already publishing studies on this fascinating group of animals. Bennett (1839) described a new species of Pteropine bat, Pteropus whitei – now known as Epomophorus gambianus, the Gambian epauletted fruit bat. Species of megabats continued to be described into the 1960s, such as Hill’s (1961) description of Malayan bats, and the diversity of bat species is seen across all our highlighted studies. Like most of the early descriptions of new species, the Gambian epauletted bat description by Bennet (1839) includes beautiful drawings of the bat and its hair structure. While aspects of their life history were hinted at from the descriptions, their ecological roles were described in more detail by Marshall & William (1982), alongside their interactions with other fruit bats in the same habitat. Ecology and ecological interactions have featured in many studies across the decades, including macroecological patterns like seasonal variation in habitat use (Vardon et al. 2001) and the effects of immediate habitat factors such as moonlight on foraging behaviour (Elangovan et al. 2001). Bhat & Kunz (1995) even describe how short-nosed bats, a small nectivorous bat, modify their habitat to create roost sites. Technological advances have changed the ways bats can be monitored, with Richter & Cumming (2008) using satellite telemetry to track bat migration, providing insights that were previously impossible.
Reproduction was an early focus of research throughout zoology and bats are no exception – including developmental biology (Moghe 1951) and male reproductive physiology (Vamburkar 1958). Reproduction in bats moved to more ecologically relevant approaches across time, including how timing of reproduction varies across geographical areas, particularly through delayed development (Heideman 1988), and a fascinating account of allo-maternal care involving assisted birth (Kunz et al. 1994).
The most striking trait of bats is of course their role as a flying mammal, so it is not surprising that structural biology has been a focus, particularly of limb structure (e.g. Bennett 1993), including comparisons of megabats with the more traditional feature of Halloween, the Vampire Bat (Granatosky 2018). Flight creates other challenges in energy balance and thermoregulation which has been an important focus of bat research, which some bats solve through torpor (Geiser 1996). Another feature of bats is their nocturnal habits, which makes the diurnal Samoan flying fox even more fascinating – providing an opportunity to test the energetic costs and benefits of soaring and flight (Thomson et al. 2002).
I hope you will enjoy exploring the rich diversity within the Pteropodidae Family of bats.
Prof. Elissa Cameron
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Zoology
Journal of Zoology Blog 
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