Though most bats are insectivorous, many bats - frugivores and nectarivores - are important pollinators. Species in approximately 1/3 of bat genera visit flowers and eat nectar and pollen. Most nectar-feeding bats are fruit bats or flying foxes (Family: Pteropodidae), or leaf-nosed bats (Family: Phyllostomidae).
Bats are divided into two major taxonomic groups, Megachiroptera, which includes only the family Pteropodidae, and Microchiroptera, which includes Phyllostomidae and 17 other families. Nectarivorous bats also consume the insects they encounter while foraging on nectar or pollen. Bats are particularly important as pollinators in the tropics and subtropics, especially in Africa, southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
Bat pollinators are also important to some plants in the New World tropics, including the southwest United States. The lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae) and Mexican long-tongued bat (Choeronycteris mexicana) pollinate plants in Central America, Mexico, and the American southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Plants pollinated by these bats include agave (Agave spp.), saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea), and organpipe cactus (Stenocereus thurberi) in Arizona and cardon (Pachycereus pringlei) in Sonora, Mexico. Both of these bat species are federally protected as endangered in the United States.
![Publication Cover [Photo: U.S. Geological Survey]](http://www.fort.usgs.gov/images/pub-images/21329_cover_sm.jpg)
