The diet of the bat Rhinolophus ferrumequinum was studied at the Zhi’an Village of Ji’an City in China, from June to August 2004. The bats were trained in a laboratory (volume: 9×4×4 m3). Foraging strategies of the bat were ob- served at night and prey remains were collected and identi- fied. The results showed that the diet consisted mainly of Lepidoptera in summer, including 11 families, more than 30 species of moths, such as Noctuidae (36.6% by number), Sphingidae (24.1%), Geometridae (13.4%) and Limacodidae (9.5%). The length of culled wings ranged from 10―40 mm (97.7%). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the bat R. ferrumequinum foraged their prey selectively, but not op- portunistically. From field studies, two ways were observed in which the bats retrieved their prey including aerial hawk- ing during peak active period of the insects and flycatching during the insects’ non-peak activity period. The bats never gleaned prey from the ground, though they appeared to be well able to detect fluttering moths on the ground.
JIN LongruFENG JiangSUN KepingLIU YingWU LeiLI ZhenxinZHANG Xichen
