chiropter-, cheiropter-

An order of placental mammals, including bats and flying foxes, with the forelimbs modified for flight or gliding: Female cheiropters have placentas which are temporary organs that join the mothers and their fetuses, or unborn babies, and which transfer oxygen and nutrients from the mother and even to provide for the release of carbon dioxide and waste products from the fetuses.

It is said that cheiropters are the only mammals that, with their large membranous wings, were able to achieve active or powered flight, thus making the atmosphere an additional habitat for them.

An order of "Mammalia", distinguished by greatly elongated fingerbones supporting a membrane or "wing" attached to the posterior limbs and the side of the body, and adapted for flight; the bats: Most Cheiroptera or Chiroptera are insectivorous, however, some of them are fruit-eaters, nectar consumers, consumers of small vertebrates, and a few are even bloodsuckers.

Chiroptera usually sleep hanging upside down in caves during the day and fly out at night and, although they have small eyes, bats are able to emit and to hear extremely high-pitched sounds, the echoes of which enable them to avoid hitting objects and each other when flying.

A reference to a mammal that has forelimbs which have been modified by natural development as wings: Bats are the second most diverse group of chiropteran mammals which have real flying capabilities and they are also efficient night hunters.

The typically pentadactyloid, or hand-like limbs of the higher vertebrates: Cheiropterygia use their "hands" to actually fly instead of just gliding from one tree to another one.

A certain plant that is pollinated by bats: There are some plants, like the guavas and mangoes, that are chiropterophiles and are fertilized by chiropterans, or bats.

A fondness or love of bats: Despite the fear or dislike that some people have for these night-flying mammals, there are also chiropterophilia who have an affection and high regard them.

In biology, a reference to plants pollinated by chiropteras: The chiropterophilous eucalyptus, banana, and agave plants can be pollinated by bats as they transfer pollen from the anthers to the stigmas while they are licking the nectar in the flowers.

Nectar-feeding or long tongued and melliferous bats that search for flowers to get sugary pollen and, at the same time, pollinate them: Chiropterophily creatures are guided by their echolocation system as well as odor cues in detecting and recognizing these apparently delicious sources of food.

Chiropterophilies drink nectar of certain kinds of flowers and these nectar-feeding plants typically offer this sweet liquid secretion for extended periods of time so the bats will return often.

A specialist in the study of flying bats, the various species, and their activities: Chiroptologists have learned, among other things, that bats are mammals whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight while other mammals are said to "fly"; such as, flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos (tree mammals having a fold of skin on each side from neck to tail) all glide rather than fly, and can only maneuver in the air for short distances.

An aversion toward bats: Chiroptophobia is a specific revulsion associated with the night-flying mammals, and often based on prejudices and misinformation. Those affected by chiroptophobia are influenced by various dangers and irrational fears of darkness that involve centuries of bias and are greatly influenced by the myths of Dracula, Halloween, etc.

Based on chiroptophobia, vampires in stories and films are often portrayed as being able to transform into bats in order to accomplish their malicious activities.

A person who has an abnormal terror of bats: Chiroptophobiacs have excessive fears of these mammals because they think that the creatures might suck their blood when they are sleeping or for other irrational reasons.