Pyrithian bat

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.

A Pyrithian bat was a flying mammal with white fur. Its natural predator was a Pyrithian moon hawk, which ate Pyrithian bats, and its diet included snow beetles and moth larvae.

Doctor Phlox kept a female pet Pyrithian bat aboard among his many animals aboard Enterprise. (ENT: "Fight or Flight") Once, while musing about humans' unique affinity for indulging an emotional bond with pets, he admits to himself that he has talked to his Pyrithian bat. (ENT: "Dear Doctor")

In 2152, while Captain Archer spent a night in Sickbay, the Doctor's bat got out. The two spent part of the night trying to capture it, and Dr. Phlox made a paper Pyrithian moonhawk and tried to impersonate the call of it to scare the bat. It was less then successful, but Hoshi Sato was able to catch it relatively simply. (ENT: "A Night in Sickbay")

In the Delphic Expanse, Dr. Phlox offered Malcolm Reed some of his bat's moth larvae to eat, after Reed had transformed back from being Loque'eque, and still found his stomach was sensitive to Human food. (ENT: "Extinction") He later used his bat as a distraction while he dispatched a Triannon guard in November of 2153. (ENT: "Chosen Realm")

[edit] Background

The use of the term "Pyrithian" in this series, and reference is unclear. The word was originally introduced in Star Trek: Voyager in associated with the Pyrithian Gorge, located on Talaxian homeworld, in the Delta Quadrant. Since the Pyrithian bat and Pyrithian moon hawk, two species known to the Denobulans, were presumably native to a planet in the Alpha or Beta Quadrant, it would seem apparent that this term is not related, and is simply used by two distinct cultures, such as the term "Darmok."