Journal
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
Volume 87, Issue 10, Pages 865-875Publisher
CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.1139/Z09-075
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We assessed diet of spotted bats (Euderma maculatum (J.A. Allen, 1891)) by visual analysis of bat feces and stable carbon (delta C-13) and nitrogen (delta N-15) isotope analysis of bat feces, wing, hair, and insect prey. We collected 33 fecal samples from spotted bats and trapped 3755 insects where bats foraged. Lepidopterans averaged 99.6% of feces by volume; other insects were not a major component of diet. The delta C-13 and delta N-15 values of bat feces were similar to those of moths from families Noctuidae (N), Lasiocampidae (L), and Geometridae (G), but differed from Arctiidae (A) and Sphingidae (S). We used a mixing model to reconstruct diet; three families (N, L, G) represented the majority (88%-100%) of the diet with A + S representing 0%-12%. Although we compared delta C-13 and delta N-15 values of wing, hair, and feces of spotted bats, feces best represented recent diet; wing and hair were more enriched than feces by 3 parts per thousand and 6 parts per thousand, respectively. This pattern was consistent with that reported for other bat species. We suggest that spotted bats persist across a wide latitudinal gradient partly because they can forage on a variety of noctuid, geometrid, and lasiocampid moths. Using visual fecal inspection with stable isotope analysis provided information on families of moths consumed by an uncommon bat species.
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