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The pallid bat ( Antrozous pallidus) is a species of bat that ranges from western Canada to central Mexico. It is the Monotypic taxon of its genus and is closely related to Van Gelder's bat ( Bauerus dubiaquercus), which is sometimes included in Antrozous. Although it has in the past been placed in its own subfamily (Antrozoinae) or even family (Antrozoidae), it is now considered part of the subfamily Vespertilioninae and the tribe Antrozoini.
It is the state bat of California.
Pallid bats are that feed on such as crickets, and are capable of consuming up to half their weight in insect every night. Pallid bats are gleaners, capturing prey from the ground and transporting it to their night roost for consumption. When foraging, pallid bats typically fly at low heights of 1–2 m off the ground. Pallid bats most notably consume Arizona bark scorpions, which are the most venomous scorpions in North America: their stings can be fatal to humans. Pallid bats were found to have one or more missense mutations that substitute in their voltage-gated sodium channels, which may be responsible for their resistance to scorpion venom. Although pallid bats are primarily insectivores, they exhibit some flexibility in their diet when seasonally feeding on Mexican columnar cacti (particularly cardón cactus) nectar in spring, and even cactus fruit in summer. Pallid bats are also more effective pollinators than some of the nectarivorous bats with whom they compete for cacti.
Like many other bat species, pallid bats are Heterothermy, meaning they can be either or Warm-blooded depending on the time of year. They have the ability to control their body temperature and equilibrate it with the environment during winter hibernation and whenever they rest.
Pallid bat size varies greatly depending on their habitat. Bats in areas of low primary productivity, such as the desert, tend to be smaller due to less availability of resources. The bats that reside in areas with more primary productivity, such as coastal regions tend to be on the larger side. Larger pallid bats also have craniums that allow them to eat larger, harder prey more easily.
Like the majority of bat species, pallid bats are capable of using echolocation while foraging and traveling from their roost sites to foraging grounds. However, they may also opt to not echolocate while foraging, and instead use their large ears to locate insects on the ground. As gleaners, they primarily rely on auditory cues produced by prey instead of echolocation to hunt. The rise of anthropogenic noise pollution, such as traffic, in their habitats is negatively impacting their foraging and can reduce efficiency by up to three times.
Pallid bats have been identified in the fossil record from late Pleistocene deposits in the western United States and Cuba.
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