Ecomorphology, differentiated habitat use, and nocturnal activities of Rhinolophus and Hipposideros species in East Asian tropical forests

Lee, Ya Fu; Kuo, Yen Min; Chu, Wen Chen; Lin, Yu; Chang, Hsing Yi; Chen, Wei Ming

doi:10.1016/j.zool.2011.07.006

Cited by 17 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…Further, prey density is also likely to be lower at LS and selection is likely to favour the evolution of lower RF’s that would allow the detection of larger prey at greater distances. There is sufficient empirical evidence to suggest that even rhinolophids, constrained by their echolocation to hunt in narrow space [58], display some degree of flexibility in the foraging habitat they exploit [148-151] or the foraging style they adopt (aerial hawking vs. perch hunting) [59,152] as a result of resource partitioning [150,153], habitat structure [148] or seasonal changes in prey resources [150]. At least one species of rhinolophid also appears to vary its echolocation frequency in response to different degrees of clutter [148].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensory trait variation in an echolocating bat suggests roles for both selection and plasticity

2014

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BackgroundAcross heterogeneous environments selection and gene flow interact to influence the rate and extent of adaptive trait evolution. This complex relationship is further influenced by the rarely considered role of phenotypic plasticity in the evolution of adaptive population variation. Plasticity can be adaptive if it promotes colonization and survival in novel environments and in doing so may increase the potential for future population differentiation via selection. Gene flow between selectively divergent environments may favour the evolution of phenotypic plasticity or conversely, plasticity itself may promote gene flow, leading to a pattern of trait differentiation in the presence of gene flow. Variation in sensory traits is particularly informative in testing the role of environment in trait and population differentiation. Here we test the hypothesis of ‘adaptive differentiation with minimal gene flow’ in resting echolocation frequencies (RF) of Cape horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus capensis) across a gradient of increasingly cluttered habitats.ResultsOur analysis reveals a geographically structured pattern of increasing RF from open to highly cluttered habitats in R. capensis; however genetic drift appears to be a minor player in the processes influencing this pattern. Although Bayesian analysis of population structure uncovered a number of spatially defined mitochondrial groups and coalescent methods revealed regional-scale gene flow, phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial sequences did not correlate with RF differentiation. Instead, habitat discontinuities between biomes, and not genetic and geographic distances, best explained echolocation variation in this species. We argue that both selection for increased detection distance in relatively less cluttered habitats and adaptive phenotypic plasticity may have influenced the evolution of matched echolocation frequencies and habitats across different populations.ConclusionsOur study reveals significant sensory trait differentiation in the presence of historical gene flow and suggests roles for both selection and plasticity in the evolution of echolocation variation in R. capensis. These results highlight the importance of population level analyses to i) illuminate the subtle interplay between selection, plasticity and gene flow in the evolution of adaptive traits and ii) demonstrate that evolutionary processes may act simultaneously and that their relative influence may vary across different environments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensory trait variation in an echolocating bat suggests roles for both selection and plasticity

2014

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“…The noseleaf of R. formosae is a very complex structure consisting of two rows of furrows and basal lappets overhanging both nostrils. Furthermore, in comparison to most other echolocating bats, R. formosae is a relatively large species, with adults averaging around 21 g in body mass and 58 mm in forearm length (Lee et al, 2012). Hence, to construct a model of sufficient detail of the noseleaf, we made a separate model of the noseleaf to simulate the emission directionality of R. formosae .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…450 ha in area and 200–300 m in elevation; Taiwan Forestry Research Institute), Kenting, Taiwan. Recordings were started around sunset in the prime activity period of the bats (Lee et al, 2012), and lasted until around 23:00. Echolocation calls were recorded using a condenser microphone (microphone capsule CM16, CMPA preamplifier unit, Avisoft Bioacoustics, Berlin, Germany) and digitized with a real time ultrasound acquisition board (UltraSoundGate 116, Avisoft Bioacoustics, Germany; 375 kHz sampling rate, 16 bit resolution) connected via USB port to a laptop computer (Eee PC, ASUS, Taiwan).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The noseleaf of Rhinolophus formosae focuses the Frequency Modulated (FM) component of the calls

Vanderelst¹,

Lee²,

Geipel³

et al. 2013

Front. Physiol.

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Bats of the family Rhinolophidae emit their echolocation calls through their nostrils and feature elaborate noseleaves shaping the directionality of the emissions. The calls of these bats consist of a long constant-frequency component preceded and/or followed by short frequency-modulated sweeps. While Rhinolophidae are known for their physiological specializations for processing the constant frequency part of the calls, previous evidence suggests that the noseleaves of these animals are tuned to the frequencies in the frequency modulated components of the calls. In this paper, we seek further support for this hypothesis by simulating the emission beam pattern of the bat Rhinolophus formosae. Filling the furrows of lancet and removing the basal lappets (i.e., two flaps on the noseleaf) we find that these conspicuous features of the noseleaf focus the emitted energy mostly for frequencies in the frequency-modulated components. Based on the assumption that this component of the call is used by the bats for ranging, we develop a qualitative model to assess the increase in performance due to the furrows and/or the lappets. The model confirms that both structures decrease the ambiguity in selecting relevant targets for ranging. The lappets and the furrows shape the emission beam for different spatial regions and frequency ranges. Therefore, we conclude that the presented evidence is in line with the hypothesis that different parts of the noseleaves of Rhinolophidae are tuned to different frequency ranges with at least some of the most conspicuous ones being tuned to the frequency modulated components of the calls—thus yielding strong evidence for the sensory importance of the component.

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“…R. indorouxi is the larger species of the two and also has a larger RF. Food resource partitioning and prey availability in different types could allow for such deviation of RFs from allometric predictions (Kelly, 2008, Shi et al, 2009Lee et al, 2012). RFs of the insular subspecies R. rouxi rubidus were lower than Western Ghats R. rouxi rouxi, in spite of no clear differences in forearm lengths.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental influences on acoustic divergence inRhinolophusbats of the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka region

Deshpande

Kelkar

2019

Preprint

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According to the acoustic adaptation hypothesis, environmental and biogeographic factors such as atmospheric humidity can influence divergence of acoustic signals and speciation in high duty-cycle echolocating bats (e.g. Rhinolophus sp.), although this remains disputed. In this study we tested the hypothesis that Resting Frequency (RF) would decrease with increasing humidity along a large latitudinal gradient (6°-21° N), for four Rhinolophus species with different evolutionary histories, in the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka (WGSL) region.We conducted acoustic recordings and compiled published information on RFs of stationary Rhinolophus indorouxi, R. rouxi, R. beddomei, and R. lepidus from 40 roosts in 18 localities of the WGSL. These data comprised of recordings made with different devices and with different settings. Hence, due to the unknown measurement error involved in the recorded RFs, it was not possible to conduct conventional regression analyses to test our hypotheses.Hence, we qualitatively assessed effects of Relative Humidity (RH) and other environmental variables by interpreting only the sign, but not the magnitude of the RF responses (from the slopes of generalized least squares regression models). We also tested how RF and RH varied across biogeographic zones, and with bat body size. RFs of the Miocene-diverged species R.indorouxi and R. rouxi were higher at lower RH, as expected. In contrast, RF of the Pleistocene-diverged species R. beddomei and R. lepidus were higher at higher RH. Elevation and rainfall also emerged as important predictors of RF variation in these species. Bat body 2 size differed in dry and humid regions of the WGSL. RF variation was not consistent across biogeographic zones. The cryptic, phonically differentiated sibling species R. indorouxi and R. rouxi co-occurred only in mid-elevation zones along the Western Ghats escarpment. The variable but significant influences of humidity and correlated factors on RF suggest the importance of environmentally mediated acoustic divergence in different Rhinolophus species in the WGSL. We propose some hypotheses on interacting effects of environmental and phylogenetic factors on acoustic divergence in Rhinolophus bats of the WGSL. These ideas could be further tested with phylogenetic and acoustic studies, as more consistent and comparable data on these species become available in the future.

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Ecomorphology, differentiated habitat use, and nocturnal activities of Rhinolophus and Hipposideros species in East Asian tropical forests

Cited by 17 publications

References 50 publications

Sensory trait variation in an echolocating bat suggests roles for both selection and plasticity

Sensory trait variation in an echolocating bat suggests roles for both selection and plasticity

The noseleaf of Rhinolophus formosae focuses the Frequency Modulated (FM) component of the calls

Environmental influences on acoustic divergence inRhinolophusbats of the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka region

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