DIET COMPOSITION, PREY AVAILABILITY AND FORAGING ACTIVITY OF PIPISTRELLUS PYGMAEUS IN A FLOODPLAIN FOREST
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| Year of publication | 2008 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In 2004 bat droppings were collected under the emerging crevice of a nursery colony of Pipistrellus pygmaeus. Prey availability and foraging activity of bats were studied using an aerial insect trap and bat-detectors installed in two different foraging sites (water and edge of forest). The localities were situated in a floodplain forest (S Moravia, Czech Republic). In total, 12 samples (20 pellets in each sample) of droppings and 66 samples from aerial trap were used to analyze prey composition and its availability. In the diet, 11 000 individuals of 28 taxonomic groups were found. As expected, small dipteran insects were the main food item in which Nematocera dominated. Further Chironomidae and Cecidomyiidae were available in high percentage. Lepidoptera, Trichoptera, Coleoptera and Sternorrhyncha were recorded in pellets more often than in aerial trap samples. A significant increase in the frequency of occurrence Chironomidae during lactation period and a decrease during post-lactation period were found. Bimodal activity of Sternorrhyncha (end of June and mid-September) in pellets was found. 97% of all caught specimens were smaller than 4 mm of body length. The commonest size-traxonomic groups were Cecidomyiidae smaller than 2 mm. Despite of the fact that changes in Chironomidae, Neuroptera, Trichoptera, Aphidinea and Simuliidae were correlated with the bats foraging activity there was no correlation between total insect biomass sampled by aerial trap and level of total foraging activity. The project was supported by the Long-term Research Project of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic No MSM0021622416, the Grant of the Czech Science Foundation No 206/06/0954 . |
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