[3] A new systematic arrangement was produced in an extensive study of poorly known chiropterans of the Indo-Austral region by James E. Hill in 1985, the greater resolution of the genus being determined by the British Museum of Natural History's acquisition of new series of specimens collected in Fiji, the New Hebrides and New Caledonia and the extensive collection made in New Guinea by ecologist Ben Gaskell on "Operation Drake".

[4] Recognised as a very widely dispersed group with distinct morphology, biology and genetic characters, the number of species and systematic arrangements varied between still contradictory treatments.

This finger gives the bats long, narrow wings that allows them to move at high speed in open environments and in some species to migrate over a distance of hundreds of kilometres.

[7] The presence of the deltaretrovirus in multiple Miniopterid species suggests that the virus was present in the family before speciation 20 million years ago.

Family Miniopteridae Bent-winged bats occur in southern Europe, across Africa and Madagascar, throughout Asia, and in Australia, Vanuatu and New Caledonia.