Data from: Prey size and dietary niche of Rafinesque’s big-eared bat (Corynorhinus rafinesquii)

Bats in the genus Corynorhinus possess a suite of morphological characters that permit them to effectively use both gleaning and aerial-hawking foraging strategies to capture Lepidoptera. Consequently, they occupy a specialized feeding niche within North American bat assemblages and are of particular interest for dietary studies. We collected fecal pellets from a colony of C. rafinesquii (Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat) at Mammoth Cave National Park during August–October 2011 and amplified cytochrome-c oxidase subunit 1 fragments of prey from these pellets. We used the Barcode of Life Database to identify prey, and evaluated the size of prey species based on published values. The mean wingspan of prey we recorded from our samples was smaller than average values reported for Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat using traditional methods (P ≤ 0.01), suggesting that surveys of culled insect parts beneath roosting sites may lead to biased estimates of the size and breadth of prey species eaten by gleaning bats. Mean wingspan of lepidopteran prey consumed by Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat in our study was larger (P ≤ 0.01) than values reported for the Myotis septentrionalis (Northern Long-Eared Bat ), which is a smaller, sympatric gleaner in eastern North America. Further, comparisons of our diet data with abundance of prey suggest macrolepidopteran taxa are consistently consumed by Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat to greater degree than microlepidotera. Our findings suggest that North American Corynorhinus consume a wider range of sizes and species of Lepidoptera than previously reported in studies based solely on identification of culled prey-wings beneath feeding roosts.长耳蝠属（Corynorhinus）蝙蝠具备一系列形态特征，可同时高效运用停落拾食与空中追捕两种觅食策略捕食鳞翅目（Lepidoptera）昆虫。因此，该类群在北美蝙蝠群落中占据独特的觅食生态位，在蝙蝠食性研究中具有特殊的研究价值。 本研究于2011年8月至10月间，在猛犸洞国家公园采集了拉氏大耳蝠（Corynorhinus rafinesquii, Rafinesque's Big-Eared Bat）种群的粪粒样本，并对样本中猎物的细胞色素c氧化酶亚基1（cytochrome-c oxidase subunit 1）片段进行了扩增。研究依托生命条形码数据库（Barcode of Life Database）完成猎物物种鉴定，并基于已发表的文献数据评估了猎物物种的体型大小。 本研究样本记录的猎物平均翅展，低于传统方法报道的拉氏大耳蝠猎物平均翅展（P ≤ 0.01），这表明对栖息位点下方遗弃的昆虫残体开展调查，可能会对拾食性蝙蝠捕食的猎物物种的体型范围与物种多样性产生有偏估计。 本研究中拉氏大耳蝠取食的鳞翅目猎物平均翅展，显著大于北美东部同域分布的小型拾食性蝙蝠——北鼠耳蝠（Myotis septentrionalis, Northern Long-Eared Bat）的相关报道值（P ≤ 0.01）。进一步将本研究的食性数据与猎物丰度进行对比后发现，拉氏大耳蝠对大鳞翅类（macrolepidopteran）类群的取食偏好程度始终高于小鳞翅类（microlepidoptera）。 本研究结果显示，北美长耳蝠属蝙蝠所捕食的鳞翅目昆虫的体型范围与物种多样性，较以往仅基于觅食栖息位点下方遗弃的猎物翅片进行物种鉴定的研究所报道的结果更为广泛。