Mesquite bugs, other insects, and a bat in the diet of pallid bats in southeastern Arizona

Abstract

The pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus) is a species of western North America, inhabiting ecoregions ranging from desert to oak and pine forest. They are primarily insectivorous predators on large arthropods that occasionally take small vertebrate prey, and are at least seasonally omnivorous in certain parts of their geographic range where they take nectar from cactus flowers and eat cactus fruit pulp and seeds. Until recently, mesquite bugs were primarily tropical-subtropical inhabitants of Mexico and Central America but have since occupied the southwestern United States where mesquite trees occur. Using a noninvasive method, we investigated the bats’ diet at the Cienega Creek Natural Preserve, Arizona, by collecting food parts discarded beneath three night roosts in soil-piping cavities in a mesquite bosque. We also made phenological and behavioral observations of mesquite bugs, Thasus neocalifornicus, and their interactions with the mesquite trees. We determined that the bats discarded inedible parts of 36 species in 8 orders of mainly large-bodied and nocturnal insects below the night-roosts. In addition, one partial bat wing represents probable predation upon a phyllostomid bat, Choeronycteris mexicana. About 17 of the insect taxa are newly reported as prey for pallid bats, as is the bat C. mexicana. The majority of culled insect parts (88%) were from adult mesquite bugs. Mesquite bug nymphs did not appear in the culled insect parts. After breeding in late summer, when nighttime low temperatures dropped below 21 °C, the adult bugs became immobile on the periphery of trees where they probably make easy prey for opportunistic foliage-gleaning pallid bats. Proximity of night-roosts to mesquite bug habitat probably also enhances the bats’ exploitation of these insects in this location.

We eat meat: a review of carnivory in bats

“…Averages obtained from data by Ross (1961), Fleming et al (1972), O’Shea and Vaughan (1977), Vehrencamp et al (1977), Fenton et al (1981), Bell (1982), Schulz (1986), dos Reis and Peracchi (1987), Medellín (1988), Aldridge et al (1990), Fenton et al (1992), Martuscelli (1995), Fenton et al (2001), Bonato et al (2004), Ramanujam and Verzhutskii (2004), Lenhart et al (2010), Witt and Fabián (2010), Felix et al (2013), Kaliraj (2014), Ibáñez et al (2016), Barbosa Leal et al (2018), Czaplewski et al (2018), Jones et al (2020) and Carvalho et al (2020). Largest prey from data by Ruschi (1953), Prakash (1959), Vaughan (1976), Schulz (1986), Medellín (1988), Fenton et al (1990, 1992), Martuscelli (1995), Kalko et al (1996), Arias et al (1999), Ramanujam and Verzhutskii (2004), Thabah et al (2007), Ibáñez et al (2016), Czaplewski et al (2018) and Molina‐Moreira and Alava (2019). The largest prey reported (Appendix ) for Vampyrum spectrum ( Proechimys semispinosus , 260 g), Megaderma lyra ( Rattus rattus , 85 g), and Tonatia bidens ( Trogon viridis , 74 g) are much larger than the largest adult size of the bats, and thus, it is unlikely that adult individuals were consumed.…”

“…Peak bird consumption by Nyctalus aviator does not coincide with bird migration and is instead proposed as an adaptation to low insect abundance during early winter (Fukui et al 2013). Antrozous pallidus feeds on a variety of invertebrates throughout its range, with strong seasonal and geographic variations (Ross 1961), and only occasionally feeds on reptiles and mammals (Czaplewski et al 2018), as well as on Agave and cacti nectar (Frick et al 2009).…”

“…, Witt & Fabián 2010, Vernier & Vedovato 2011, Fukui et al 2013, Jones et al 2013, Smirnov & Vekhnik 2013, Surlykke et al 2013, Halfwerk et al 2014, Kaliraj 2014, Smarsh & Smotherman 2015, Ibáñez et al 2016, Ripperger et al 2016, Jones et al 2017, Smarsh & Smotherman 2017, Brewton et al 2018, Czaplewski et al 2018, Vargas-Mena et al 2018, Vleut et al 2019, Carvalho et al 2020, Jones et al 2020, Page & Bernal 2020, Perrella et al 2020 …”

Molecular diet analysis of neotropical bats based on fecal DNA metabarcoding

“…Bulk sorting is contingent upon the ability to identify plants, vertebrates, and insects from fragments, which requires substantial taxonomic expertise and time. In addition, the utility of this approach is limited when the most taxonomically informative portions of the diet item are not consumed (e.g., the elytra of beetles; Czaplewski et al., 2018). Recently developed molecular approaches known collectively as “DNA metabarcoding” have revolutionized investigations into animal ecology by providing methods that are fast, scalable, and customizable to particular dietary taxa of interest (De Barba et al., 2014; Tab erlet et al., 2007b; Riaz et al., 2011).…”

Adaptation of gestation or egg-laying in species depends on the amount of internal heat generated in digesting the food

“…Bat consumes the food such as honey, fruit pulp and insects. Bats appear to eat abdomen and thorax of the insects and discard the wings and legs, which were hard to digest [2]. As shown in Table--3, dietary scale for this group of species ranges from one to three, at the lower end.…”