Greater short-nosed fruit bat

These bats have a relatively long snout. Their upper parts are brown to grey-brown with paler under parts. The fur is very fine and silky. The ears and wing bones of C. sphinx are edged in white. Lower cheek teeth rounded without accessory cusps. The wingspan of the adult is about . Juveniles are lighter than adults. Average forearm length is , with a range of . ==Habitat==

The greater short-nosed fruit bat is found from Pakistan to Vietnam. It is common in tropical forests and areas where fruit crops are cultivated. They can also be found in grasslands and mangrove forests. They typically nest high in palm trees. The bats chew the fronds of the palms to construct fairly simple tents. These bats are also known to construct tents by closely interweaving the leaves and twigs of creeping vines which cover buildings, but such nests are constructed only when palms are not available. ==Behaviour and breeding==

The greater short-nosed fruit bat is gregarious, and typically roosts in same-sex groups of eight to nine individuals. The sexes remain separate until the mating season, when group size increases. They are polygynous and 6–10 males and 10–15 females usually share palm-frond tents during the breeding season. They are known to perform fellatio, which enhances copulation time in the species. Copulation by males is dorsoventral and the females lick the shaft or the base of the male's penis, but not the glans which has already penetrated the vagina. While the females do this, the penis is not withdrawn and research has shown a positive relationship between length of the time that the penis is licked and the duration of copulation. Postcopulation genital grooming has also been observed. Males stay with females for some time after mating, but later return to same-sex groups. , and locate their preferred food items by scent. They have been described as voracious feeders, eating more than their body weight in food in one sitting. Some preferred fruits include ripe guava, banana, chikoo, dates, and lychees. Short-nosed fruit bats inflict serious damage on many fruit crops, and are considered pests. In addition, these bats are possible vectors for Japanese encephalitis, which is serious disease in humans. These bats are important dispersers of date palm seeds, and pollinate many night blooming flowers. They are also known to construct shelter tents by severing leaves and stems from certain creepers and mast trees like Polyalthia longifolia. Frugivory, nectarivory, and folivory are well understood; in addition, geophagy behaviour has also been reported in this species recently, and is suggested to represent an 'adaptive behavioural plasticity' in the foraging behaviour of the greater short-nosed fruit bat. According to Mahandran et al. geophagy have the function of mineral supplementation and/or detoxification. ==References==

Image:Greater short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx) feeding on Kapok (Ceiba pentandra) at night in Kolkata W IMG 3881.jpg|Feeding on kapok (Ceiba pentandra) at night in Kolkata, West Bengal, India Image:Greater short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx) feeding on Kapok (Ceiba pentandra) at night in Kolkata W IMG 3877.jpg|Feeding on kapok at night in Kolkata Image:Greater short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx) feeding on Kapok (Ceiba pentandra) at night in Kolkata W IMG 3860.jpg |Feeding on kapok at night in Kolkata