Taphozous melanopogon

The black-bearded tomb bat (Taphozous melanopogon), also known as the black-bearded sheath-tailed bat, is a member of the sheath-tailed bat family. The black-bearded tomb bat clusters in the cracks of the cave, or lies on the rock wall in the cave, hiding in the deep cracks by retreating. It can be seen that it lives in the same cave with other bats, but they do not mix with the group. It feeds on insects and sometimes fruits. It is relatively rare. In Guangdong, Guangxi and other places, there is a custom of taking the bones of ancestors from the graves and placing them in pottery jars next to the caves where this species of bats live. It seems to have some connection with the English name "Tomb Bat".

In China, it is distributed in Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Macau and Hong Kong. Abroad, it is distributed in the vast tropical areas of southern Asia, including Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. The type locality of this species is in Java.

Small in size. Forearm length 60-77mm. Adult males have a small tuft of black hair under the chin. Ears are slightly triangular, with short, nearly square tragus. Eyes are large. The lower lip has a fleshy lobe, and the tail passes through the back of the intertibial membrane. The second finger has no phalanx. The skull has a low frontal depression, a well-developed supraorbital process, a wide and round skull, and a raised occipital region. The back hair is usually brown, the belly hair is gray-brown, and the hair base is all white.