The Seminole bat ( Lasiurus seminolus) is a species of bat in the family Vespertilionidae.
Taxonomy
The Seminole bat was first described in 1895 by Samuel N. Rhoads.
The
holotype had been collected in
Tarpon Springs, Florida in 1892 by William S. Dickinson. Rhoads placed it in the now-defunct genus
Atalpha, identifying it as a
subspecies of the eastern red bat with a scientific name of
Atalpha borealis seminolus. In 1932, the name
Lasiurus seminolus was applied to the taxon for the first time by Earl Lincoln Poole.
Description
The Seminole bat is often confused with the red bat. This is due to the coloring of the Seminole bat, which is a mahogany color with a frosted look due to white tipped dorsal hairs.
Coloring is not sexually dimorphic, meaning that males and females are similar in color.
Average weight is around 12 grams with females being larger than males.
Diet
Seminole bats are
. Insectivores are animals that feed primarily on insects. They have been found to eat relatively large amount of
Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps),
Beetle (beetles),
Lepidoptera (moths).
They have also been shown to eat smaller amounts of
Hemiptera (cicadas) and
Fly (flies).
Distribution
The Seminole bat is found in the Southeastern United States. This includes Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and parts of Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas and North Carolina. There are also records of Seminole bats as far as Mexico.
It is a migratory species, living along the
Gulf Coast, in the Carolinas, and southern Arkansas during the winter. In the summer, they migrate as far north as Missouri and Kentucky.
In 2015, it was documented for the first time in northwestern North Carolina.
The bats prefer to live in forested areas. In winter months they are found to use leaf litter and Spanish moss as insulation in their roost sites.
