The foraging ecology of the Mountain long-eared bat Plecotus macrobullaris revealed with DNA mini-barcodes

Molecular analysis of diet overcomes the considerable limitations of traditional techniques for identifying prey remains in bat faeces. We collected faeces from individual Mountain long-eared bats Plecotus macrobullaris trapped using mist nets during the summers of 2009 and 2010 in the Pyrenees. We analysed their diet using DNA mini-barcodes to identify prey species. In addition, we inferred some basic features of the bat’s foraging ecology that had not yet been addressed. P. macrobullaris fed almost exclusively on moths (97.8%). As prey we detected one dipteran genus (Tipulidae) and 29 moth taxa: 28 were identified at species level (23 Noctuidae, 1 Crambidae, 1 Geometridae, 1 Pyralidae, 1 Sphingidae, 1 Tortricidae), and one at genus level (Rhyacia sp., Noctuidae). Known ecological information about the prey species allowed us to determine that bats had foraged at elevations between 1,500 and 2,500 m amsl (above mean sea level), mostly in subalpine meadows, followed by other open habita...

饮食组成的分子分析技术，克服了传统蝙蝠粪便猎物残留鉴定方法的诸多局限。本研究于2009年与2010年夏季在比利牛斯山脉，利用雾网捕获高山长耳蝠（Plecotus macrobullaris）个体并采集其粪便样本。本研究借助DNA微型条形码（DNA mini-barcodes）技术分析其饮食组成以鉴定猎物物种，同时解析了该蝙蝠此前未被阐明的觅食生态学基本特征。高山长耳蝠几乎完全以蛾类为食，蛾类占其总猎物组成的97.8%。本次检测到的猎物类群包括1个双翅目大蚊科（Tipulidae）属类群与29个蛾类分类单元：其中28个可鉴定至物种水平（23个隶属于夜蛾科（Noctuidae）、1个隶属于草螟科（Crambidae）、1个隶属于尺蛾科（Geometridae）、1个隶属于螟蛾科（Pyralidae）、1个隶属于天蛾科（Sphingidae）、1个隶属于卷蛾科（Tortricidae）），剩余1个鉴定至属水平（Rhyacia sp.，隶属于夜蛾科（Noctuidae））。结合已知的猎物物种生态学信息，本研究推断该蝙蝠的觅食海拔介于1500至2500米海拔高程（amsl，即above mean sea level）之间，主要觅食生境为亚高山草甸，其次为其他开阔生境……