Nuevo reporte sobre la dieta de Sturnira aratathomasi y algunas notas sobre su distribucion en Colombia
Estrada-Villegas, SergioA. Pedraza, CarlosPérez-Torres, JairoR. Stevenson, Pablo
The natural history and distribution of many bat species is still unknown, especially for those restricted to mountain environments. A genus with most of its species found in the Andes is Sturnira, been Sturnira aratathomasithe largest in the genus but also a species whose biology and ecology is poorly known. Here we report for the first time, a fruit consumed by this species and we review its distribution. A study of the bat assemblage was carried out in a humid montane forest in the Central Andes of Colombia and fecal samples were collected to compare them with a plant reference built for this study. Five individuals of Sturnira aratathomasi were captured and two fecal samples were collected with seeds from Solanum sycophanta Dunal 1852, a tree found in mature and early secondary forests. This finding corroborates the strong association between the genus Sturniraand the Solanaceae family. A literary review of the species was carried out and geographical coordinates were obtained, plotted afterwards on geographical information system map of South America and Colombia. The distribution of Sturnira aratathomasi, with an emphasis in Colombia, confirms that it is restricted to habitats over 1650m and associated to Andean forests. Comments on other reports are made.