Data from: Eating local: influences of habitat on the diet of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus)

We employ molecular methods to profile the diet of the little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus, and describe spatial and temporal changes in diet over their maternity season. We identified 61 prey species of insects and 5 species of arachnid. The largest proportion of prey (∼32%) were identified as species of the mass-emerging Ephemeroptera (mayfly) genus Caenis. Bats roosting in agricultural settings had lower dietary richness than those occupying a roost located on a forest fragment in a conservation area. We detected temporal fluctuations in diet over the maternity season. Dipteran (fly) species dominated the diet early in the season, replaced later by species of mayfly. Because our methodology provides species-level identification of prey, we were able to isolate environmental indicator species in the diet and draw conclusions about the location and type of their foraging habitat and the health of these aquatic systems. The species detected suggested that the bats use variable habitats; members of one agricultural roost foraged on insects originating in rivers or streams while those in another agricultural roost and the forest roost fed on insects from pond or lake environments. All source water for prey was of fair to good quality, though no species detected are intolerant of pollution thus the habitat cannot be classified as pristine. Our study outlines a model system to investigate the abiotic and biotic interactions between habitat factors through this simple food chain to the top predator.我们采用分子生物学方法对小棕蝠（Myotis lucifugus）的饮食组成进行了表征，并描述了其育幼季期间饮食的空间与时间变化规律。本研究共鉴定出61种昆虫类猎物及5种蛛形纲动物。占比最高的猎物（约32%）被鉴定为集中羽化的蜉蝣目（Ephemeroptera，蜉蝣）下的细蜉属（Caenis）物种。栖息于农业区域的蝙蝠，其饮食物种丰富度低于栖息在保护区内森林片段中的蝙蝠个体。本研究观测到育幼季内蝙蝠饮食存在时间波动：育幼季早期，双翅目（Diptera，蝇类）物种为饮食中的优势类群，后期则被蜉蝣类物种取代。由于本研究方法可实现猎物的物种级鉴定，我们得以从蝙蝠饮食中分离出环境指示物种，并据此推断蝙蝠觅食栖息地的位置与类型，以及相关水生生态系统的健康状况。检测到的猎物物种表明，蝙蝠利用的栖息地类型多样：一处农业栖息点的蝙蝠以河流或溪流来源的昆虫为食，而另一处农业栖息点及森林栖息点的蝙蝠则取食池塘或湖泊环境中的昆虫。所有猎物来源的水体水质均为中等至良好水平，但本次检测到的物种均不耐污染，因此该栖息地无法被界定为原始未受干扰的生境。本研究构建了一个可通过该简单食物链，探究栖息地相关因子与顶级捕食者之间非生物与生物相互作用的模型系统。