ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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The main horseshoe (Rhinolophus Ferraumequinum) is a bat of the Rinolophid family in the Palearctic Echozone.

Description

Dimensions
Medium-sized bat, with the length of the head and body between 56 and 79 mm, the length of the forearm between 54,8 and 62,1 mm, the length of the tail between 30 and 44 mm, the length of the foot between 9.9 and 14 mm, the length of the ears between 20 and 28,5 mm and a weight up to 34 g.

Appearance
Fur is long, soft and lazy. The brown-greyish or brown dorsal parts, more or less with reddish reflections and the base of the clear hairs, while the ventral parts vary from white-grey to white-yellowish. The ears are short. The nasal leaf has a triangular hand, with the edges slightly towards the beveled tip, a rounded connective process, a small saddle, with slightly concave edges, the rounded end and curved forward. The front portion does not completely cover the muzzle and has little lateral leaves and a deep central recess to the base. The lower lip has one or three longitudinal grooves. The alar membranes are clear brown or brown-grey, the first phalange of the fourth finger is relatively long. The tail is long and included completely in the wide uropatage. The first upper premolar is small and located off the alveolar line.

Ecolo
It emits ultrasound at high working cycle with long-lasting constant frequency pulses of 77–83 kHz.

Biology

Behavior
In summer it shelters in rocky cracks, hollows of trees and relatively warm and humid mining tunnels, in the attics of buildings in the northernmost part of the area and in ancient temples and ruins in the eastern part, where it forms nurseries up to 1,000 females, with males that tend to be solitary. From September to April both sexes aggregate and enter into hibernation within natural or artificial underground environments. This state can be interrupted several times, especially to get food. The predatory activity begins at sunset. The flight is slow, floating, highly maneuvered and carried out up to 6 meters from the ground. It is a sedentary species with maximum movements up to 320 km, mainly between summer and winter sites.

Power supply
It feeds on coleopterans, moths, spiders, corkscrews and cryptops caught in flight or collected on the ground over meadows and among the trees up to 2–3 km from the shelters. They are devoured on specific cutters. Sometimes it can spot the prey even from a stop, stretching the surrounding space with ultrasound, moving only the head.

Reproduction
They give birth to a small at a time between June and early August after a 72-day gestation. The couplings take place at the end of the summer and last until the next spring. Nascituri open eyes after a week and are able to fly after about u