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Abstract
Given the diversity of prey consumed by insectivorous bats, it is difficult to discern the composition of their diet using morphological or conventional PCR-based analyses of their faeces. We demonstrate the use of a powerful alternate tool, the use of the Roche FLX sequencing platform to deep-sequence uniquely 5′ tagged insect-generic barcode cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) fragments, that were PCR amplified from faecal pellets of two free-tailed bat species Chaerephon pumilus and Mops condylurus (family: Molossidae). Although the analyses were challenged by the paucity of southern African insect COI sequences in the GenBank and BOLD databases, similarity to existing collections allowed the preliminary identification of 25 prey families from six orders of insects within the diet of C. pumilus, and 24 families from seven orders within the diet of M. condylurus. Insects identified to families within the orders Lepidoptera and Diptera were widely present among the faecal samples analysed. The two families that were observed most frequently were Noctuidae and Nymphalidae (Lepidoptera). Species-level analysis of the data was accomplished using novel bioinformatics techniques for the identification of molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTU). Based on these analyses, our data provide little evidence of resource partitioning between sympatric M. condylurus and C. pumilus in the Simunye region of Swaziland at the time of year when the samples were collected, although as more complete databases against which to compare the sequences are generated this may have to be re-evaluated.
Highlights
Molecular techniques have become a practical tool for investigating the diets of vertebrates [1,2], those that are difficult to observe such as nocturnal bats [3,4,5,6]
Both species use echolocation calls with similar peak frequencies (C. pumilus 25–40 kHz, M. condylurus 26–35 kHz [15]) to orientate and locate their prey in flight [7], suggesting that they may not partition prey resources via echolocation [16,17] This hypothesis is contradicted by a previous microscopic faecal analysis of the two species in Uganda, Kenya and Malawi [18], which concluded that morphological differentiation was responsible for perceived resource partitioning between the two species and enabled them to survive sympatrically [18]
The principal aim of the study was to characterise molecularly the dietary diversity of C. pumilus and M. condylurus in order to investigate whether there is any evidence of resource partitioning of their prey
Summary
Molecular techniques have become a practical tool for investigating the diets of vertebrates [1,2], those that are difficult to observe such as nocturnal bats [3,4,5,6]. Previous studies based on microscopic examination of faecal pellets have shown that both these bats feed on a wide variety of insect orders [7,14,15] Both species use echolocation calls with similar peak frequencies (C. pumilus 25–40 kHz, M. condylurus 26–35 kHz [15]) to orientate and locate their prey in flight [7], suggesting that they may not partition prey resources via echolocation [16,17] This hypothesis is contradicted by a previous microscopic faecal analysis of the two species in Uganda, Kenya and Malawi [18], which concluded that morphological differentiation was responsible for perceived resource partitioning between the two species and enabled them to survive sympatrically [18]. Given their taxonomic relatedness, similar behaviour and hunting strategies, we hypothesised that resource partitioning may be minimal between these two species, in areas of high insect diversity and abundance, and that more powerful molecular based analyses may demonstrate this
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