Authors: Emanuel C Mora Silvio Macías
Publish Date: 2006/12/06
Volume: 94, Issue: 5, Pages: 380-383
Abstract
Unlike any other foraging phyllostomid bat studied to date Poey’s flower bats Phyllonycteris poeyiPhyllostomidae emit relatively long up to 72 ms intense singleharmonic echolocation calls These calls are readily detectable at distances of at least 15 m Furthermore the echolocation calls contain only the first harmonic which is usually filtered out in the vocal tract of phyllostomids The foraging echolocation calls of P poeyi are more like searchphase echolocation calls of sympatric aerialfeeding bats Molossidae Vespertilionidae Mormoopidae Intense long narrowband singleharmonic echolocation calls focus acoustic energy maximizing range and favoring detection which may be particularly important for cruising bats like P poeyi when flying in the open Flying in enclosed spaces P poeyi emit short lowintensity frequencymodulated multiharmonic echolocation calls typical of other phyllostomids This is the first report of a phyllostomid species emitting long intense singleharmonic echolocation calls with most energy in the first harmonicThe authors want to express their gratitude to Luis Manuel Díaz and Antonio Cadiz who helped in localizing the foraging bats and during the recording sessions This study was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt foundation Germany to ECM We also thank Dr Brock Fenton for his support and three other anonymous referees for their valuable comments on earlier versions of the manuscript
Keywords: