Feedingbehaviour of the dawn bat (&lt;i&gt;Eonycteris spelaea&lt;/i&gt;) promotes cross pollination of economically important plants in Southeast Asia

Pushpa Raj Acharya,Sara Bumrungsri,Sunthorn Sotthibandhu,Paul A Racey

doi:10.26786/1920-7603(2015)5

Abstract

Eonycteris spelaea is recognized as the principal pollinator of most chiropterophilous plants in SE Asia. The present study describes its feeding behaviour and clarifies its role in cross pollinating these highly self-incompatible plants. Ten individuals of E. spelaea were radio-tracked during the flowering period of durian (Durio zibethinus) and petai (Parkia speciosa) in an agricultural mosaic in southern Thailand. Eonycteris spelaea makes a mean of seven visits per hour to these trees and 80-86% of each feeding bout involves visits to multiple conspecific trees. During each visit, 93% of D. zibethinus stigmas and 50% of P. speciosa stigmas were loaded with conspecific pollen. Eonycteris spelaea was the most common bat visitor to the trees. High visitation frequency and conspecific pollen deposition by E. spelaea to D. zibethinus and P. speciosa indicates that this nectarivorous bat is an effective pollinator. Mixed planting of chiropterophilous trees in fruit orchards is recommended to ensure regular visits of E. spelaea. Protecting natural roost caves of E. spelaea is also essential in order to maintain the vital ecosystem service provided by these bats.

Highlights

Bat pollination is relatively uncommon among existing pollination systems, which rely heavily on insects, over 528 species of 250 genera of plants from tropical and subtropical regions show various degrees of dependency on bats for pollination (Dobat & Peikert Holle 1985; Fleming & Muchhala 2008; Fleming et al 2009)
It is clear that E. spelaea typically visits multiple conspecific trees during most feeding bouts and feeds actively throughout the night
Each single visit of nectarivorous bats, most of which are presumed to be E. spelaea based on the capture records, resulted in the deposition of conspecific pollen onto most of the stigmas of their food plants

Summary

Introduction

Bat pollination is relatively uncommon among existing pollination systems, which rely heavily on insects, over 528 species of 250 genera of plants from tropical and subtropical regions show various degrees of dependency on bats for pollination (Dobat & Peikert Holle 1985; Fleming & Muchhala 2008; Fleming et al 2009) Some of these plants are either economically valuable for human use as food and timber or ecologically important members of arid and semi-arid ecosystems of America and Africa and mangrove forests of Southeast Asia (Fujita & Tuttle 1991; Mickleburgh et al 1992; Yetman 2007; Fleming et al 2009, Kunz et al 2011). Parkia spp. and Musa spp. are major components of the diet of E. spelaea during their flowering season (Start 1974; Bumrungsri et al 2013)

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