A bat captured near Honolulu Airport’s interisland terminal has tested negative for rabies, the state Agriculture Department said Wednesday.

Airport security personnel on Monday afternoon saw a man playing with the bat and tossing it in the air outside of the lobby near Baggage Claim B.

They took the bat and turned it over to the Transportation Safety Administration, which called state agricultural inspectors.

The bat died overnight and a necropsy was conducted Tuesday by state veterinarians. The Department of Health’s laboratory completed the rabies tests, which were negative for the virus, the Agriculture Department said.

It is not known where the bat came from or how it got to the airport. The man at the airport told security guards he found it on the ground near a bench, said Janelle Saneishi, Agriculture Department spokeswoman.

Security officials did not detain the man.

The bat had a wingspan of about 9 inches. Biologists with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bishop Museum identified it as a little brown bat, or Myotis lucifigus. It is native to North America and is one of the most common on the mainland. They feed on insects and are mainly nocturnal.

"Keeping Hawaii rabies-free is one of the highest priorities of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture," department head Russell Kokubun said in a news release. "Incidents like this remind us that it is not just a concern for animal health, but also human health."

Hawaii is the only state and one of the few places in the world that is rabies-free.

Officials ask that anyone who sees an unusual animal or insect call the state’s toll-free Pest Hotline at 643-PEST (643-7378).

There were more than 6,150 cases of rabies in animals and two in humans reported in 2010 in the United States and Puerto Rico, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said. For more information, see www.cdc.gov/ rabies/index.html.