Diversity, similarity and trophic guild of chiropterofauna in three southern Pantanal sub-regions, State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Abstract

In the Brazilian Pantanal, virtually no studies of communities of bats, despite the richness of spcies. As the chiropterofauna in the Pantanal is still poorly known, this works purpose was to verify the diversity, trophic guild and similarity in three sub-areas (Aquidauana, Miranda-Abobral and Nhecolândia) of the Pantanal, Mato Grosso do Sul. From May 1994 to November 2004, 221 sampling sessions were performed, using mist nets and capture effort of 17,148,495 h m2, 2.818 bats were captured, belonging to 34 species distributed in 5 families (Emballonuridae, Molossidae, Noctilionidae, Phyllostomidae and Vespertilionidae). The families Molossidae (n = 9) and Phyllostomidae (n = 15) showed the greatest number of species and the predominant genus was Myotis (4). Twenty seven species were recorded in Aquidauana sub-region, 23 in Miranda-Abobral and 30 in Nhecolândia. The species diversity (Shannon H index) was greater in the Nhecolândia (3.33), followed by Aquidauana (3.12) and Miranda-Abobral (2.0). Regarding the similarity of species, Aquidauana and Nhecolândia (0.83) presented larger similarity, both Aquidauana compared to Miranda-Abobral and Nhecolândia to Miranda-Abobral presented the same similarity (0.78). The trophic guild insectivorous prevailed with 58.8%, followed by frugivorous with 17.6%, nectarivorous, hematophagous and omnivorous with 5.9% each, carnivorous and piscivorous with 2.9%. The results indicate that the sub-regions show high similarity and diversity of species, compatible with that suggested for the Neotropical region (2.0)