Morphological and scanning electron microscopic study of the lingual papillae in the Javan Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus javanicus)

Abstract

There are vast numbers of bats, in terms of both individuals and species, in Indonesia, although the precise species count is currently unknown. These bats demonstrate great variation in feeding patterns, with some being insectivorous, frugivorous, nectar-eating or carnivorous. One of the insectivorous bats found on Java Island, Indonesia, is the Javan pipistrelle (Pipistrellus javanicus). This paper presents a detailed morphological description of the tongue and lingual papillae of P. javanicus, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and light microscopy (LM). Macroscopically, the elongated tongue of P. javanicus can be divided into three sections: the apex, corpus and radix. On the dorsal part of the tongue (corpus), there is a prominence called the mediodorsal lobe, the lobe begin from the end of apex. On the radix, in the medial part, we describe the presence of a sulcus medianus. The SEM and LM observations show that the apex of the tongue bears three types of papillae: crown filiform, pronged filiform and fungiform. The corpus bears conical and fungiform papillae, whereas the radix bears vallate, large filiform, small filiform and fungiform papillae. Taken together, these results contribute to research on the tongue anatomy and feeding habits of the bat.

Keywords: Pipistrellus javanicus; light microscopy; lingual papillae; scanning electron microscopy.