An inordinate fondness for beetles? variation in seasonal dietary preferences of night-roosting big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus)

Clare, Elizabeth L., Symondson, William Oliver Christian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3343-4679 and Brockett Fenton, M. 2014. An inordinate fondness for beetles? variation in seasonal dietary preferences of night-roosting big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus). Molecular Ecology 23 (15) , pp. 3633-3647. 10.1111/mec.12519

Preview

PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Generalist species with numerous food web interactions are thought to provide stability to ecosystem dynamics; however, it is not always clear whether habitat generality translates into dietary diversity. Big brown bats are common across North America and employ a flexible foraging strategy over water, dense forests, forest edges and rural and urban settings. Despite this generalist use of habitat, they are paradoxically characterized as beetle specialists. However, hard carapaces may preferentially survive digestion leading to over-representation during morphological analysis of diet. This specialization has not been evaluated independently using molecular analysis and species-level identification of prey. We used next-generation sequencing to assess the diet of big brown bats. Beetles were consumed in the highest frequency but Lepidoptera species richness was highest among identified prey. The consumption of species showed strong seasonal and annual variation. While Coleoptera consumption varied, Lepidoptera and Ephemeroptera were relatively constant dietary components. Dietary diversity increased in late summer when insect diversity decreases. Our results indicate that big brown bats are dietary generalists and, while beetles are an important component of the diet, Lepidoptera are equally important, and Lepidoptera and Ephemeroptera are the only stable prey resource exploited. As resources become limited, big brown bats may respond by increasing the species richness of prey and thus their connectedness in the ecosystem. This characterization of diet corresponds well with a generalist approach to foraging, making them an important species in encouraging and maintaining ecosystem stability.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Biosciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology Q Science > QL Zoology
Uncontrolled Keywords:	insectivores; molecular diet analysis; species' interactions
Additional Information:	First published: 31 October 2013 Pdf uploaded in accordance with publisher's policy at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0962-1083/
Publisher:	Blackwell Publishing
ISSN:	0962-1083
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2023 04:33
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/52918

Citation Data

Cited 93 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item