Data for: Dietary analysis reveals differences in the prey use of two sympatric bat species

One mechanism for morphologically similar and sympatric species to avoid competition and facilitate coexistence is to feed on different prey items within different microhabitats. In the current study, we investigated and compared the diet of the two most common and similar-sized bat species in Japan – Murina ussuriensis (Ognev, 1913) and Myotis ikonnikovi (Ognev, 1912) – to gain more knowledge about the degree of overlap in their diet and their foraging behavior. We found that both bat species consumed prey from the orders of Lepidoptera and Diptera most frequently, while the proportion of Dipterans was higher in the diet of M. ikonnikovi. Furthermore, we found a higher prey diversity in the diet of M. ikonnikovi compared to that of M. ussuriensis which might indicate that the former is a more generalist predator than the latter. In contrast, the diet of M. ussuriensis contained many Lepidopteran families. The higher probability of prey items likely captured via gleaning to occur in the diet of M. ussuriensis in contrast to M. ikonnikovi indicates that M. ussuriensis might switch between aerial-hawking and gleaning modes of foraging behavior. We encourage further studies across various types of habitats and seasons to investigate the flexibility of the diet composition and foraging habitat use of these two bat species.

形态相似且同域分布的物种避免竞争、促进共存的一类典型机制，是在不同微生境中取食不同的猎物类群。本研究针对日本境内两种最为常见且体型相近的蝙蝠——乌苏里管鼻蝠（Murina ussuriensis, Ognev, 1913）与伊氏鼠耳蝠（Myotis ikonnikovi, Ognev, 1912）的食性开展调查与对比分析，以期深入了解二者食性与觅食行为的重叠程度。研究结果显示，两种蝙蝠均最常取食鳞翅目（Lepidoptera）与双翅目（Diptera）昆虫，且伊氏鼠耳蝠的食谱中双翅目昆虫占比更高。进一步分析表明，伊氏鼠耳蝠的食谱猎物多样性高于乌苏里管鼻蝠，这提示前者相较于后者是更为广食的捕食者；而乌苏里管鼻蝠的食谱涵盖多个鳞翅目科类群。相较于伊氏鼠耳蝠，乌苏里管鼻蝠的食谱中更常出现通过静候捡拾（gleaning）方式捕获的猎物，这表明乌苏里管鼻蝠可能会在空中飞捕与静候捡拾两种觅食模式间灵活切换。本研究呼吁未来开展覆盖多样生境类型与季节的相关研究，以探究这两种蝙蝠的食谱组成灵活性及其觅食生境利用策略。