Indian flying fox flying foxes engage in oral sex, with males performing cunnilingus on females. The duration of oral sex is positively associated with the duration of copulation, suggesting that its purpose is to make the female more receptive to copulation and to increase the male's chances of fertilizing an ovum. Like other fruit bats, the Indian flying fox may be a natural reservoir for diseases including certain henipaviruses and flaviviruses. These can prove fatal to humans and domestic animals. Indian flying foxes in India and Bangladesh have tested positive for Nipah virus, a type of henipavirus. Due to human encroachment into their
Andersen's flying fox was described as a new species in 1908 by Danish mammalogist Knud Andersen. The holotype had been collected by William Ruxton Davison and presented to Andersen by Allan Octavian Hume. There is taxonomic uncertainty regarding this species: some have published that it is likely synonymous with the Indian flying fox while other have published that it is synonymous with the large flying fox. Its species name ""intermedius"" is Latin for "intermediate;" Andersen may have chosen that name because he compared it to both the Indian flying fox and the large flying fox. Andersen wrote that it was "scarcely distinguishable" from