Smallest bat family

The smallest taxonomic family of bats is Craseonycteridae, which contains just a single species – Craseonycteris thonglongyai, Kitti's hog-nosed bat. It is also known as the bumblebee bat on account of its tiny size, only 29–33 mm long and around 2 g in weight. It remained unknown to science until 1973, when discovered in Thailand by Thai mammalogist Dr Kitti Thonglongya, and proved so different from all previously known species of bat that it was not only a new species but also one that required a new genus and even a new family in which to house it. These were created in 1974 when this species was formally named and described. Until 2001, this rare species was known only from Thailand but in that year a single specimen was discovered in Mon State, Myanmar (formerly Burma), and since then at least nine separate caves containing this species have been located in Myanmar. Although Thai and Burmese specimens are outwardly identical, they voice different echolocation calls, which may indicate that they constitute separate species.