The Hipposideridae previously included the genera Cloeotis and Triaenops, which are now placed in the separate family Rhinonycteridae (Foley et al. 2015). Furthermore, the speciose genus Hipposideros has recently been split up, adding the genera Doryrhina and Macronycteris to the family; all three genera occur in Africa (Foley et al. 2017). A fourth genus, Asellia, is widespread in the northern parts of the continent, but does not extend into southern Africa. Members of this family occurring in our region typically have a prominent noseleaf that is simple and elliptical (Figure 80a), in contrast to the threepronged noseleaf of the rhinonycterids (Figure 80b), and they lack the single, triangular erect process of the Rhinolophidae (Figure 97). Note that Asellia also has a three-pronged noseleaf, but does not occur in southern Africa.

Hipposideros is a large genus found throughout the Old World. It is well represented in tropical Africa with species richness declining away from the equator. In our region, no more than two species co-occur at any one site (and usually only one species). The noseleaf (half-moon-shaped; Figure 80a) is widely used to identify species within the genus.

Doryrhina cyclops (Temminck 1853), a forest species, occurs on the extreme northwest border of the region. This is based on two records: one from Lovanium, Republic of Congo (Congo–Brazzaville) (04.25S 15.03E, RMCA 31201), and a second mapped south of the Bas Congo in the DRC (which would fall within our region), but without reference to a museum specimen (Decher and Fahr 2005); however, this latter record is not mentioned by van Cakenberghe et al. (2017). For this reason, we do not provide an account for this species until a verified record is confirmed within our region. Doryrhina cyclops is a large bat (FA typically ~65–70 mm) with distinctive long woolly pelage and a noseleaf with two median club-shaped processes (Figure 81), making it unlikely to be confused with any other southern African hipposiderid (Decher and Fahr 2005).

The genus Macronycteris includes the largest bats in the family and is represented in the region by two species: M. vittatus is relatively widespread in the northern parts of southern Africa, whereas M. gigas is poorly known.

Echolocation calls in this family typically show a high duty-cycle, constant frequency (HD-CF) component. The CF component differs between species and may be used as a guide to their identification (Monadjem et al. 2007, 2013c, Webala et al. 2019).