Harpy Fruit Bat

The harpy fruit bat is two-tone in color, being mostly dark brown and lighter brown on its underside. It has no tail but does have a small, fur-covered uropatagium. Its overall length is 140–153 mm (5.5–6.0 in). Its canines, premaxillary bones, and upper incisors lean forward causing the upper and lower canines to cross forming nearly right angles when the mouth is closed. The molars are multicuspidate having five or six cusps on each. The lower canines have three cusps (tricuspidate). They weigh 83–142 g (2.9–5.0 oz).

Harpy fruit bats are found on the Philippine islands of Biliran, Maripipi, Camiguin, Leyte, Southern Luzon, Mindanao, Mindoro, Negros, Cebu, Masbate, and Samar. They reside in primary (old growth), secondary, and lightly disturbed montane forests. Their range in elevation is between sea level and 1,800m, preferring to stay in habitats of "mid-elevation (around 500m)". As with other fruit bats, harpy fruit bats are crepuscular and "roost in trees" instead of caves.

The harpy fruit bat is frugivorous and eats from the viney pandans and some fig species. The excretion of seeds in the bat's guano helps with the dispersal of these plant species.

It was described as a new species in 1896 by British zoologist Oldfield Thomas. The specimens that he examined in Britain had been collected by English explorer John Whitehead, after whom the species name whiteheadi was chosen. Of Whitehead, Thomas wrote "Mr. Whitehead is to be congratulated on this interesting addition to the splendid discoveries he has already made in the Philippine Islands." The holotype was collected by Whitehead in December 1895 on the island of Mindoro at an elevation of 5,000 ft (1,500 m). Thomas created the genus Harpyionycteris for this species, and it was the only species in this genus until the description of the Sulawesi harpy fruit bat in 1921.