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

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.