Feeding by the short‐tailed bat <i>(Mystacina tuberculata)</i> on fruit and possibly nectar

Abstract

New Zealand's short‐tailed bat ( Mystacina tuberculata Gray, 1843) feeds on fruit, insects, and possibly nectar in North Island kauri ( Agathis australis) forest. Fruits eaten by members of a colony of 500 bats in May included those of Freycinetia baueriana (Pandanaceae), Collospermum hastatum , and C. microspermum (Liliaceae). Pollen analyses of bat guano, and of the stomach contents of 4 short‐tailed bats from Omahuta Forest (Lat. 35°10'S) and 3 from Stewart Island and adjacent islands (Lat. 47°15'S), showed that most of the pollen was from flowers of Metrosideros and Leptospermum (Myrtaceae), Knightia excelsa (Proteaceae), and Collospermum , and that spores of the tree fern Cyathea (Cyatheaceae) were present also. Both Metrosideros and Knightia have abundant nectar. The partially extensile tongue of Mystacina is tipped with a brush of fine papillae, possibly to extract nectar and pollen; but the pollen and spores in the bat stomachs and guano could have come from insects eaten by the bats. Transverse ridges on the tongue may assist removal of juice from ripe fruits. These bats may disperse the small seeds of Freycinetia baueriana . The anatomical modifications of Mystacina for terrestrial and arboreal locomotion may have evolved primarily in response to its frugivorous and suspected nectarivorous habits.