Abstract

ELIZALDE-ARELLANO, Cynthia; URIA-GALICIA, Esther  and  LOPEZ-VIDAL, Juan Carlos. Morfología comparada de lenguas de Tadarida brasiliensis (I. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, 1824) y Balantiopteryx plicata (Peters, 1867) (Mammalia, Chiroptera). Acta Zool. Mex [online]. 2002, n.86, pp.103-117. ISSN 2448-8445.

The lingual morphology of two insectivorous bats, Tadarida brasiliensis and Balantiopteryx plicata, is compared looking for specialized structures related to the particular feeding type. The tongue of T. brasiliensis has a noticeable dorsal fold covered with horny papillae. The tongue of B. plicata lacks the fold and the horny papillae. In both species there are three kinds of papillae: filiform, fungiform and circumvallate, and they have a similar arrangement. Filiform papillae cover the most part of the tongue and are the smallest; the fungiform are dorsal and lateral. The circumvallate are the biggest, there is only one pair on the posterior zone. Histologically both species have the general type of tissues and their arrangement as in the tongue of humans and other mammals. Only B. plicata has mucous glands in the ventral side. Both species have a symmetric pair of lymphoid nodules. The dorsal fold in T. brasiliensis and the lymphoid nodules are described for the first time for the Chiroptera. The tongues of this species are Type I and have intraoral function. There seems to be no special structures for the insectivorous feeding in both species, but the fold in T. brasiliensis could be a special character of this species and of the genus and maybe the family Molossidae. The role of this structure deserves further investigation.

Keywords : Tadarida brasiliensis; Balantiopteryx plicata; insectivorous bats; tongue; anatomy; histology.

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