NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Lesser Short-nosed Fruit Bat
Cynopterus brachyotis (Müller, 1838)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Greater short-nosed fruit bat - photographed in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka in daylight while it was moving branch to branch.
Anton 17 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
The lesser short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus brachyotis) is a species of megabat within the family Pteropodidae. It is a small bat that lives in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It weighs between 21 and 32 grams (0.74 and 1.13 oz), and measures 70 to 127 millimetres (2.8 to 5.0 in). It occurs in many types of habitat, but most frequently in disturbed forest, including lower montane forest and tropical lowland rain forest, plus gardens, mangroves, and vegetation on beaches.
Wikipedia contributors, Lesser short-nosed fruit bat; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T12:48:52.297932+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Cynopterus brachyotis (Müller, 1838)
- Name authority
- (Müller, 1838)
- Common name
- Lesser Short-nosed Fruit Bat
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Chiroptera
- Family
- Pteropodidae
- Genus
- Cynopterus
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
- subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
- infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
- orderChiroptera Blumenbach, 1779
- suborderYinpterochiroptera Springer, Teeling, Madsen, Stanhope & Jong, 2001
- familyPteropodidae Gray, 1821
- subfamilyCynopterinae Andersen, 1912
- tribeCynopterini Andersen, 1912
- genusCynopterus F. Cuvier, 1824
- speciesCynopterus brachyotis (Müller, 1838)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Cynopterus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Greater Short-nosed Fruit BatCynopterus sphinx (Vahl, 1797) | PteropodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Indonesian Short-nosed Fruit BatCynopterus titthaecheilus (Temminck, 1825) | PteropodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Peters's Fruit BatCynopterus luzoniensis (Peters, 1861) | PteropodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Nusatenggara Short-nosed Fruit BatCynopterus nusatenggara Kitchener & Maharadatunkamsi, 1991 | PteropodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
| Minute Fruit BatCynopterus minutus Miller, 1906 | PteropodidaeChordata | Accepted speciesRecorded extant |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=631552 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:6C88T. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.