There are about 45 species of bats in the United States and we have 11of those in Ohio. All Ohio bats
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| Northern Long-eared Bat |
A big myth is that bats carry rabies. The truth is less than 1% of bats carry rabies. Just as with any wild animal, we should never go out and pick them up but the chance of getting rabies is slim. Another myth is that bats are blind. The truth is that bats can see but since they move after dark, they use echolocation to find their food. They send out a high frequency sound (too high for humans to hear) and can determine a lot of information from the sounds they emit. This would be object location, size, if it is moving and so much more. A third myth is that they are blood hungry. There are no bats in the U.S. that drink blood. The vampire bats in Central and South America do consume blood but we do not have to worry about that. There are also many myths about them also but since this is on Ohio bats, I will not cover it here.
Bats of Ohio
Little Brown Bat
Additional names: Little Brown Myotis
Myotis lucifugus
Ohio Status: Species of concern
Northern Long-eared Bat
Myotis septentrionalis
Ohio Status: Threatened
Indiana Bat
Additional names: Indiana Myotis, Social Bat
Myotis sodalis
Ohio Status: Endangered
Eastern Small-footed Bat
Additional names: Eastern Small-footed Myotis, Leib’s Myotis
Myotis leibii
Ohio Status: Species of concern
Silver-haired Bat
Lasionycteris noctivagans
Ohio Status: Species of concern
Big Brown Bat
Eptesicus fuscus
Ohio Status: Species of concern
Eastern Red Bat
Lasiurus borealis
Ohio Status: Species of concern
Hoary Bat
Lasiurus cinereus
Ohio Status: Species of concern
Evening Bat
Additional names: Twilight Bat, Black-shouldered Bat
Nycticeius humeralis
Ohio Status: Species of concern
Tri-colored Bat
Perimyotis subflavus
Additional names: Eastern Pipistrelle, Pip. Georgian Bat, Northern Pipistrelle
Pipistrellus subflavus
Ohio Status: Species of concern
Rafinesque’s Big-eared Bat
Additional names: Eastern Big-eared Bat, Southeastern Big-eared Bat, Eastern Lump-nosed Bat
Corynorhinus rafinesquii
Meaning Behind Their Names
Bats may have more than one common name as they can vary depending on the geographical location. Scientific names are always written in Latin and italicized. The first is the generic (genus) and the second name is the species. The Latinized scientific names, usually originat from Greek and are descriptive such as physical attributes, habitat, behavior in honor of a person. Some of the genus meanings in Ohio are:
Corynorhinus—from the Greek coryn, meaning “club,” and rhinos, meaning “nose.”
rafinesquii—patronym for Constantine S. Rafinesque, an early American naturalist.
Eptesicus—Latin for “house flier.” Big brown bats often live in houses.
fuscus—Latin for “brown.”
Lasionycteris—from two Greek words, lasios, meaning “hairy,” and nycteris, meaning “bat.”
noctivagans—from the Latin nox, meaning “night,” and vagans, meaning “wanderer.”
Lasiurus—from the Greek lasios, meaning “hairy,” and oura, meaning “tail,” a reference to the heavily furred uropatagium.
borealis—Latin for “northern.”
cinereus—Latin for “ashen” or “gray.”
intermedius—Latin for “intermediate.”
seminolus—refers to the Seminole Indians, who lived in the region where the type specimen was obtained.
Myotis—from the Greek words mys, meaning “mouse,” and otus, meaning “ear.”
austroriparius—from two Latin words, austro, meaning “southern,” and riparius, which means “frequenting the banks of streams.”
grisescens—from the Latin word griseus, meaning “becoming gray.”
leibii—a patronym recognizing George Leib, collector of the type specimen.
lucifugus—Latin for “to flee from light.”
septentrionalis—Latin for “northern.”
sodalis—Latin for “companion,” referring to the habit of hibernating in large numbers.
Nycticeus—Latin for “belonging to the night.”
humeralis—Latin for “of the forelimb.”
Perimyotis—from the Greek word peri, meaning “about” or “around,” referring to the fact that this bat is closely related to the genus Myotis.
Scientific names source