Vespertillionidae - Blog Posts

A couple bats to wrap up the year. There was gonna be more but, just my luck, my tablet's pen is malfunctioning real bad and I'm on the other side of the globe in New Zealand right now. Oh, well; expect more when that's taken care of!

Nerdy stuff under the cut. Happy holidays, everybody!

In terms of chiropteran diversity they may not be the most dramatic examples, but these species are in separate classifications entirely. The left is an eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis, though I did take some liberties with the colors) in the Vespertillionidae family and the right being some indiscriminate funnel-eared bat (specifically a Natalus sp.) from Natalidae. It is worth noting that both families are in the same superfamily, though, but pff, that's not even a real word.

It's no secret that I love my lasiurine bats (though I really broke the mould this time with a L. borealis instead of L. cinereus, woah gotta slow down there) so she was my first on the sheet. I'm already pretty adept in terms of lasiurine anatomy so she was more of a shading test which I'm rather happy with! They're so whiskery 🥺

At first the second bust was supposed to be of a generic Myotis species, but I thought that might be a bit boring (not that I don't love them too of course but my sketchbooks are full of them) so I went with a different pointy-faced little fella. Or, well, I think my thought process was more like "what's another species that when its mouth is open just looks like :V" but same deal. Funnel-eared bats are a very small family and you can tell they aren't very far-removed from vesper bats, but it's their subtler differences that interested me. They have these really funny moustaches, b-shaped skulls and almost woollen fur. They're also a more traditionally "ugly" species and that especially made me want to showcase how lovely they are.

I do wonder if the eyes are maybe a little uncanny, though. I intended for anthros of species without visible scleras to remain partially faithful to that and have enlarged irises/pupils but I dunno, looks kind of cartoony here, haha. Oh well, still plenty of room to experiment!

I'm very happy with these! The difference in fur texture especially was something I didn't think I'd be able to pull off, but I think I nailed it (without references, too! Booyah!). I hope to bring you guys some more underappreciated species as well as showcases of diversity soon; there are so, so many bats out there to love and they're all so different. Much love, hope you enjoy!