The thermal niche of a species is one of the main determinants of its ecology and biogeography. In this study, we determined the thermal niche of 23 species of Neotropical nectar‐feeding bats of the subfamily Glossophaginae (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae). We calculated their thermal niches using temperature data obtained from collection records, by generating a distribution curve of the maximum and minimum temperatures per locality, and using the inflection points of the temperature distributions to estimate the species optimal (STZ) and suboptimal (SRZ) zones of the thermal niche. Additionally, by mapping the values of the STZ and SRZ on a phylogeny of the group, we generated a hypothesis of the evolution of the thermal niches of this clade of nectar‐feeding bats. Finally, we used the characteristics of their thermal niches to predict the responses of these organisms to climate change. We found a large variation in the width and limits of the thermal niches of nectar‐feeding bats. Additionally, while the upper limits of the thermal niches varied little among species, their lower limits differ wildly. The ancestral reconstruction of the thermal niche indicated that this group of Neotropical bats evolved under cooler temperatures. The two clades inside the Glossophaginae differ in the evolution of their thermal niches, with most members of the clade Choeronycterines evolving “colder” thermal niches, while the majority of the species in the clade Glossophagines evolving “warmer” thermal niches. By comparing thermal niches with climate change models, we found that all species could be affected by an increase of 1°C in temperature at the end of this century. This suggests that even nocturnal species could suffer important physiological costs from global warming. Our study highlights the value of scientific collections to obtain ecologically significant physiological data for a large number of species.
The interaction between bats and plants is key to the stability of ecosystems and economically important industries, such as tequila and mezcal in México. For these reasons, it is important to determine the current state of knowledge about the plant diet of nectar-feeding bats. In this study, we conducted a systematic review of the literature on plants that have been reported as sources of food for nectar-feeding bats (subfamily Glossophaginae) in México. Based on this information, we identified bat species with the best-documented knowledge of their diet, the most consumed plant genera, and the territories with information gaps in the country. The literature search on the diet of nectar-feeding bats was carried out in the Web of Science database, Google Scholar, and digital collections of universities. We constructed rarefaction curves for bat diet richness, a heat map of the plant genera consumed by each, and a map of food localities in the different biogeographical provinces of México. This information served to explore whether knowledge of the diet of bats was related to variables such as the presence of chiropterophilous plants or the richness of nectar-feeding bats. In México, nectar-feeding bats feed mainly on plants of the genera Agave spp., Pseudobombax spp., and Ceiba spp., which, according to the literature, provide food to more than 75 % of nectar-feeding bats in Mexican territory. Leptonycteris yerbabuenae is the species with the most information on its diet in México, while Lichonycteris obscura is the species with the least information. None of the bat species reached a value greater than 65 % of the expected richness. Localities where the plant diet of nectar-feeding bats has been studied correspond to provinces in the Neotropical region of México. Knowledge about the diet of nectar-feeding bats in México is far from complete. The distribution of diet localities is biased over a large part of its geographic range and is positively correlated with areas with higher nectar-feeding bat species richness.
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