NOCTILIONID2E, a family of insectivorous bats, inhabiting tropical regions of both hemispheres. Their habits are not well known. The members of the genus noctules of South America are commonly known as "bull-dog bats" on account of their short thick muzzles, which in some species are cleft like the lip of a hare. The tail sometimes projects behind the membrane which connects the hind legs, and the claws of the hind feet are large and strong. The length of the body is 4 or 5 in., and the spread of the wings about 18 inches. An East Indian genus, dysopus, has a spread of wing of two feet, and the hinder thumb is placed at a distance from the rest of the toes, similar to the arrangement in the quadrumana. In this genus the tail is short and the membrane connecting the hind legs is very small. The cheiroptera are variously classi fied. M. Lesson placed the noctitionide as a sub-family of vespertilioni&e, under the name noctilionina, consisting of ten genera—noctilio, dysopes, mollossus (q.v.), cheiromedes,
nyctinornus, dinops, stenotierma, celeno, alio, and scotophihcs. The frugivorous (fruit eating) bats were also placed as a sub-family of vespertilionidm (see BAT) by M. Lesson and others; but they now usually classed apart, the order cheiroptcra being divided into two sections, tmsecticora and frugivora, the insectivore comprising four families: •eapertilranideD, rhinolophidce, noctilionidw, and phyllostomidce (see Phyllostoma in art. Yam PIRE ; also SPECTER BAT, ante). The frugivora embrace only one family, the pteropidte ',q.v.), or the fox bats, including several genera. In the classification of Linnmus the respertilionidm were equiva:entio our eheiroptera.