Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T16:21:32.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Resource availability, diet and reproduction in Glossophaga longirostris (Mammalia: Chiroptera) in an arid zone of the Venezuelan Andes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Maricela Sosa  and
Pascual J. Soriano
Maricela Sosa
Affiliation:
Universidad de Los Andes, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología, Mérida 5101, Venezuela
Pascual J. Soriano*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Los Andes, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología, Mérida 5101, Venezuela
*
1 Corresponding author.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Seasonal variation in the consumption of cactus fruit by the bat Glossophaga longirostris was related to the availability of this resource in the arid pocket of Lagunillas in the Venezuelan Andes. When fruits were scarce, G. longirostris ate items not preferred in other seasons. The intraspecific flowering periods of the most common cactus species, Stenocereus griseus and Subpilocereus repandus, were synchronized but the number of flowers open per night was low. S. griseus and S. repandus had separate flowering and fruiting periods, possibly to reduce competition for dispersers and pollinators while providing food resources for bats throughout the year. G. longirostris is bimodally polyestrous with extended reproductive periods, probably as a response to the continual availability of cactus flowers and fruits. A strong interdependence between columnar cacti and G. longirostris was demonstrated. Sexual reproduction of the cacti would be greatly reduced without the bats, which in turn could not live in the arid study area without the food sources provided by these cacti.

Keywords

arid zonesCactaceaeChiropterachiropterochorydietfrugivoryGlossophaga longirostrispollinationreproductionVenezuela
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 12 , Issue 6 , November 1996 , pp. 805 - 818
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

Blanco, C. A. 1976. Florula de la zona xerófila Ejido-Estanques del Estado Mérida. Primera parte. Trabajo de Ascenso dissert., Universidad de Los Andes, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales. 91 pp.Google Scholar
Bonaccorso, F. J. 1979. Foraging and reproductive ecology in a Panamanian bat community. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences 24:359–408.Google Scholar
Croat, T. B. 1975. Phenological behavior of habits and habitat classes on Barro Colorado Island (Panama Canal Zone). Biotropica 7:270–277.Google Scholar
Daubenmire, R. 1972. Phenology and other characteristics of tropical semi-deciduous forest in northwestern Costa Rica. Journal of Ecology 60:147–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinerstein, E. 1986. Reproductive ecology of fruit bats and the seasonality of fruit production in a Costa Rican cloud forest. Biotropica 18:307–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, T. H. 1989. Climb every cactus – BCI's Sonoran Desert Bat-Cactus Project concludes its first field season in Mexico. Bats 7:3–6.Google Scholar
Fleming, T. H., Hooper, E. T. & Wilson, D. E. 1972. Three Central American bat communities: structure, reproductive cycles, and movements. Ecology 53:555–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, G. G. & Greenhall, A. M. 1961. A review of the bats of Trinidad and Tobago. Descriptions, rabies infection, and ecology. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 122:187–302.Google Scholar
Graham, G. L. 1987. Seasonality of reproduction in Peruvian bats. Fieldiana Zoology, New Series 39:173–186.Google Scholar
Heithaus, E. R. 1982. Coevolution between bats and plants. Pp. 327–367 in Kunz, T. H. (ed.). Ecology of bats. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Heithaus, E. R., Fleming, T. H. & Opler, P. A. 1975. Foraging patterns and resource utilization in seven species of bats in a seasonal tropical forest. Ecology 56:841–854.Google Scholar
Heithaus, E. R., Opler, P. A. & Baker, H. G. 1974. Bat activity and pollination of Bauhinia pauletia: plant-pollinator coevolution. Ecology 55:412–419.Google Scholar
Howell, D. J. 1974. Bats and pollen: physiological aspects of the syndrome of chiropterophily. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 48:263–276.Google Scholar
Kunz, T. H. & Anthony, E. L. P. 1982. Age estimation and post-natal growth in the bat Myotis lucifugus. Journal of Mammalogy 63:23–32.Google Scholar
Kurta, A., Bell, G. P., Nagy, K. A. & Kunz, T. H. 1989. Energetics of pregnancy and lactation in free-ranging little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus). Physiological Zoology 62:804–818.Google Scholar
Laval, R. K. & Fitch, H. S. 1977. Structure, movements and reproduction in three Costa Rican bat communities. Occasional Papers, Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas 69:1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
León de la Luz, J. L. & Dominguez, R. 1991. Evaluatión de la reproductión por semillas de la pitaya agria (Stenocereus gummosus) en Baja California Sur, México. Acta Botanica Mexicana 14:75–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcuzzi, G. 1956. Contributión al estudio de la ecología del medio xerófilo venezolano. Región de Lagunillas en el Estado Mérida. Boletin de la Facultad de Ingeniería Forestal 3:8–42.Google Scholar
Molinari, J. 1984. Dinámica reproductiva y ecología trófica de Carollia brevicauda y otros murciélagos frugívoros. Lic. Biol. dissert., Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela. 136 pp.Google Scholar
Nassar, J. 1991. Biología reproductiva de cuatro cactáceas quiropterófilas venezolanas (Cereeae: Stenocereus griseus, Pilosocereus moritzianus, Subpilocereus repandus y S. horrispinus,) y las estrategia de visitas de los murtiélagos asociados a éstas. Tesis de licenciatura dissert., Universidad Central de Venezuela, Facultad de Ciencias, Caracas, Venezuela. 136 pp.Google Scholar
Pijl, L. Van Der. 1972. Principles of dispersal in higher plants (2nd edition). Springer-Verlag, Berlin. 161 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ponce, M. 1989. Distributión de cactáceas en Venezuela y su ámbito mundial. Trabajo de Ascenso, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Facultad de Agronomía, Maracay, Venezuela. 215 pp.Google Scholar
Racey, P. A. & Speakman, J. R. 1987. The energy costs of pregnancy and lactation in heterothermic bats. Pp. 107–126 in Loudon, A. & Racey, P. A. (eds). Mammalian reproductive energetics. Symposium of the Zoological Society of London 57.Google Scholar
Sarmiento, G., Monasterio, M., Azocar, A., Castellano, E. & Silva, J. 1971. Estudio integral de las cuencas de los ríos Chama y Capazón. Oficina de Publicaciones Geográficas, Instituto de Geografia y Conservation de recursos Naturales, Escuela de Geografia, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela. 63 pp.Google Scholar
Snow, D. W. 1965. A possible selective factor in the evolution of fruiting seasons in tropical forest. Oikos 15:274–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soriano, P. J. 1983. La comunidad de quiropteros de las selvas nubladas en los Andes de Merida. Patrón reproductivo de los frugívoros y las estrategias fenológicas de las plantas. MSc Dissertation, Universidad de Los Andes, Merida, Venezuela. 113 pp.Google Scholar
Soriano, P. J., Sosa, M. & Rossell, O. 1991. Hábitos alimentarios de Glossophaga longirostris Miller (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) en una zona arida de los Andes venezolanos. Revista de Biologia Tropical 39:267–272.Google Scholar
Sosa, M. 1991. Relaciones ecológicas entre el murciélago Glossophaga longirostris y las cactáceas columnares en el bolsón árido de Lagunillas, Mérida, Venezuela. Lic. Biol. dissert., Universidad de Los Andes, Merida, Venezuela. 106 pp.Google Scholar
Speakman, J. R. & Racey, P. A. 1987. The energetics of pregnancy and lactation in the brown long eared bat Plecotus auritus. Pp. 367–393 in Fenton, M. B., Racey, P. A. & Rayner, J. M. V. (eds). Recent advances in the study of bats. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Stashko, E. R. & Dinerstein, E. 1988. Methods of estimating fruit availability to frugivorous bats. Pp. 221–231 in Kunz, T. H. (ed.). Ecological and behavioral methods for the study of bats. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., London. 533 pp.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. W. 1988. Analysis of diets of plant-visiting bats. Pp. 211–220 in Kunz, T. H. (ed.). Ecological and behavioral methods for the study of bats. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., London. 533 pp.Google Scholar
Webster, W. D. & Handley, C. O. Jr. 1986. Systematics of Miller's long-tongued bat, Glossophaga longirostris, with description of two new subspecies. Occasional Papers, The Museum, Texas Technical University 100:1–22.Google Scholar
Willig, M. R. 1985. Reproductive patterns of bats from Caatingas and Cerrado biomes in Northeast Brazil. Journal of Mammalogy 66:668–681.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. E. 1979. Reproductive patterns. Pp. 279–386 in Baker, R. J., Jones, J. K. & Carter, D. C. (eds). Biology of bats of the New World family Phyllostomidae. Part III. Special Publications of the Museum, Texas Technical University, No. 16. Lubbock, Texas. 441 pp.Google Scholar