The Morphological Description and Histological Study of Lingual Papillae in the Tongue Bat Pipistrillus kuhli

The present study was carried out to investigate the morphological and histological structure as well as some histochemical aspects of tongue bat Pipistrillus kuhli. The dorsal surface of the tongue has lateral oblique grooves connected with inter median groove, while the ventral surface, contain long process with deep fissure on its free end. Histologically, the dorsal surface was covered by keratinized stratified squamous epithelium, while the ventral surface covered with non- keratinized stratified squamous epithelium. Three types of lingual papillae (filiform, fungiform and circumvallate) were project and distributed on the dorsal surface. The filiform papillae are the most abundant and characterized by a slender sharp pointed structure, while the fungiform papillae like the mashroom, the wall contain taste buds, but the circumvallate papillae circular in shape and embedded in the epithelium and surrounded by circle grooves which contain taste buds. The lamina propria is consisted of dense connective tissue which is rich in blood vessels and striated muscle fibers that have arranged in different directions. The results of histochemical examination of lingual glands showed positive reaction for PAS stain in this species.