Trophic niche of two sympatric frugivorous bat species in a periurban area of southern Brazil

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Several species of bats inhabit forest fragments near urban areas. Artibeus lituratus and Platyrrhinus lineatus are frugivorous species able to dwell in these habitats. The aim of this study was to observe the fruiting rate of species included in the diet of A. lituratus and P. lineatus, associated with their feeding ecology, and to quantify the niche overlap of both species around a metropolitan area. The study was conducted at the campus of the Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Parana state, southern Brazil. We established four sampling sites, where four net sessions were performed monthly during 1 year, and four mist nets (9×2.5 m) were exposed in a period of 4 h in each sampling, completing a capture effort of 17,280 m2 h. We also observed the fruiting rate of 12 species that peaked in the warmest and wettest periods. We recorded nine species in the diet of A. lituratus, which also presented little restriction concerning habitat use. Higher specificity was observed in the diet of P. lineatus, which prefered Ficus and Cecropia. We concluded that P. lineatus is a specialist and seems to require more abundant resources at the study area, whereas A. lituratus is a generalist and shows greater adaptability to environmental disturbances.