It’s official: the world’s 1,500th known bat species has been discovered in Equatorial Guinea. Due to bats’ delicate anatomy, there aren’t many well-preserved bat specimens in the fossil record. P. etula marks the 1,500th species described to science, with a name that breaks away from conventional choices. “It’s their land where this tiny bat lives, so what better name for it than ‘etula.’”In the Bantu language, “erula” means “island” and “god of the island,” according to Torrent. Bat Appreciation Month runs all October, culminating with Bat Week and even a Bat Beauty Contest run by the Bureau of Land Management.