They alter their flight path to intercept the insect, and snatch it up by extending a pouch running between their legs. Other bats have an even more sophisticated location system. Leaf-nosed bats send their cries not through their mouths but through their nostrils, which are sculpted into ornate folds that help focus the sonic beams. And rather than sending out pulses and pausing to listen for the echoes, they emit almost continuous sounds. But bats don't necessarily need echolocation to hunt.
Some species use it only to stay aware of their surroundings.
Still other bats don't hunt at all. Some eat fruit, while others drink nectar from flowers, like hummingbirds. Generally, these larger bats prefer a diet of fruit. The rest navigate through the night solely with the aid of their oversize eyes. The oldest bat fossils are 50 million years old, and paleontologists assume bats had been flying around for a few million years before that.