Prey Selection by<i>Rhinolophus hipposideros</i>(Chiroptera, Rhinolophidae) in a Modified Forest in Southwest Europe

Lino, Ana; Fonseca, Carlos; Goiti, Urtzi; Pereira, María João Ramos

doi:10.3161/150811014x683282

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…R . hipposideros is known to prey mostly upon Diptera Nematocera, followed by Lepidoptera and Neuroptera [68, 69]. In our study, the combined use of both primer sets overall confirms the diet composition depicted in previous studies [42, 63, 67–70], even if the family choices within dipterans and neuropterans differ.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Gaining ecological insight on dietary allocation among horseshoe bats through molecular primer combination

et al. 2019

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Knowledge on the trophic interactions among predators and their prey is important in order to understand ecology and behaviour of animals. Traditionally studies on the diet composition of insectivorous bats have been based on the morphological identification of prey remains, but the accuracy of the results has been hampered due to methodological limitations. Lately, the DNA metabarcoding and High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) techniques have changed the scene since they allows prey identification to the species level, ultimately giving more precision to the results. Nevertheless, the use of one single primer set to amplify faecal DNA produces biases in the assessed dietary composition. Three horseshoe bats overlap extensively in their distribution range in Europe: Rhinolophus euryale , R . hipposideros and R . ferrumequinum . In order to achieve the deepest insight on their prey list we combined two different primers. Results showed that the used primers were complementary at the order and species levels, only 22 out of 135 prey species being amplified by both. The most frequent prey of R . hipposideros belonged to Diptera and Lepidoptera, to Lepidoptera in R . euryale , and Lepidoptera, Diptera and Coleoptera in R . ferrumequinum . The three bats show significant resource partitioning, since their trophic niche overlap is not higher than 34%. Our results confirm the importance of combining complementary primers to describe the diet of generalist insectivorous bats with amplicon metabarcoding techniques. Overall, each primer set showed a subset of the prey composition, with a small portion of the total prey being identified by both of them. Therefore, each primer presented a different picture of the niche overlap among the three horseshoe bats due to their taxonomic affinity.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Gaining ecological insight on dietary allocation among horseshoe bats through molecular primer combination

et al. 2019

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“…Finally, Lepidoptera and Diptera were the most diverse taxa of R . hipposideros diet, as found in previous studies based on morphological identification of prey remains [42,44,79]. However, in contrast with prior research, we observed a high diversity of moth species.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 54%

Pest consumption in a vineyard system by the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros)

et al. 2019

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Herbivorous arthropods cause immense damage in crop production annually. Consumption of these pests by insectivorous animals is of significant importance to counteract their adverse effects. Insectivorous bats are considered amongst the most voracious predators of arthropods, some of which are known crop pests. In vineyard-dominated Mediterranean agroecosystems, several crops are damaged by the attack of insect pests. In this study we aimed 1) to explore the diet and pest consumption of the lesser horseshoe bat Rhinolophus hipposideros and 2) analyse whether the composition of pest species in its diet changes throughout the season. We employed a dual-primer DNA metabarcoding analysis of DNA extracted from faeces collected in three bat colonies of a wine region in Southwestern Europe during the whole active period of most pest species. Overall, 395 arthropod prey species belonging to 11 orders were detected; lepidopterans and dipterans were the most diverse orders in terms of species. Altogether, 55 pest species were identified, 25 of which are known to cause significant agricultural damage and 8 are regarded as pests affecting grapevines. The composition of pest species in faeces changed significantly with the season, thus suggesting several periods should be sampled to assess the pest consumption by bats. As a whole, the results imply that R . hipposideros acts as a suppressor of a wide array of agricultural pests in Mediterranean agroecosystems. Therefore, management measures favouring the growth of R . hipposideros populations should be considered.

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“…,b; Lino et al . ). Because of their significant potential adaptations to foraging, diet is a likely axis to consider for resources partitioning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Insectivorous bats are considered dietary generalists, with flexible foraging behaviours leading them to consume prey in relation to its abundance (Swift et al 1985;Kunz et al 2011). However, selective feeding and the ability to discriminate prey have been reported in various insectivorous species (Koselj et al 2011;Kr€ uger et al 2014a,b;Lino et al 2014). Because of their significant potential adaptations to foraging, diet is a likely axis to consider for resources partitioning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary overlap and seasonality in three species of mormoopid bats from a tropical dry forest

Salinas‐Ramos

León‐Régàgnon

et al. 2015

Molecular Ecology

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Competing hypotheses explaining species' use of resources have been advanced. Resource limitations in habitat and/or food are factors that affect assemblages of species. These limitations could drive the evolution of morphological and/or behavioural specialization, permitting the coexistence of closely related species through resource partitioning and niche differentiation. Alternatively, when resources are unlimited, fluctuations in resources availability will cause concomitant shifts in resource use regardless of species identity. Here, we used next-generation sequencing to test these hypotheses and characterize the diversity, overlap and seasonal variation in the diet of three species of insectivorous bats of the genus Pteronotus. We identified 465 prey (MOTUs) in the guano of 192 individuals. Lepidoptera and Diptera represented the most consumed insect orders. Diet of bats exhibited a moderate level of overlap, with the highest value between Pteronotus parnellii and Pteronotus personatus in the wet season. We found higher dietary overlap between species during the same seasons than within any single species across seasons. This suggests that diets of the three species are driven more by prey availability than by any particular predator-specific characteristic. P. davyi and P. personatus increased their dietary breadth during the dry season, whereas P. parnellii diet was broader and had the highest effective number of prey species in all seasons. This supports the existence of dietary flexibility in generalist bats and dietary niche overlapping among groups of closely related species in highly seasonal ecosystems. Moreover, the abundance and availability of insect prey may drive the diet of insectivores.

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Prey Selection byRhinolophus hipposideros(Chiroptera, Rhinolophidae) in a Modified Forest in Southwest Europe

Cited by 15 publications

References 28 publications

Gaining ecological insight on dietary allocation among horseshoe bats through molecular primer combination

Gaining ecological insight on dietary allocation among horseshoe bats through molecular primer combination

Pest consumption in a vineyard system by the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros)

Dietary overlap and seasonality in three species of mormoopid bats from a tropical dry forest

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