Onychonycteris known species, hence "Onychonycteris" meaning "clawed bat". The specific epithet is a tribute to the fossil prospector and preparator who discovered it, Bonnie Finney. "Onychonycteris finneyi" was the strongest evidence so far in the debate on whether bats developed echolocation before or after they evolved the ability to fly. "O. finneyi" had well-developed wings, and could clearly fly, but lacked the enlarged cochlea of all extant echolocating bats, closer resembling the old world fruit bats which do not echolocate. This indicates that early bats could fly before they could echolocate. However, an independent evaluation of the "Onychonycteris" reference fossil in
Lesser long-eared bat sight is mostly restricted to aerial prey while they a technique that the species uses to take advantage of seasonal booms of tettigoniid crickets as well as general ground and aerial prey, known as passive listing. This method of hunting does not rely on sight or echolocation. Some moths species, like noctuids, have evolved to develop their own form of "ears" that are able to pick up the frequency of bat calls, however they are unable to sense long-eared bats as the bats use a minute whispering technique different from echolocation which bounces off the moths and is picked up