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Plant–animal interactions constitute some of the most important ecological processes for the maintenance of tropical forests. Bats are the only group of mammals capable of true flight and have been recognized as important dispersers of pioneer and secondary successional plant species. Although progress has been made in the study of Neotropical bats, morphological variation of the wing and its influence on niche separation between species is unknown. We evaluated relationships among habitat structures of selected Colombian tropical dry forest patches, the diet through interaction networks, and wing morphology of 11 species of bats in the Stenodermatinae subfamily (297 individuals) using geometric morphometry in a phylogenetic context. The results indicate that the phylogenetic signal for wing size is greater than for wing shape, thus providing some evidence for evolutionary convergence. Wing shape variation was associated primarily with the distal anatomical tip of the third finger and the joint between the humerus and the radius and ulna. Species with wide, short wings, as in the genus Artibeus had generalist diets and less nested positions within the interaction networks. In contrast, species with elongated and pointed wings, such as Sturnira and Platyrrhinus , had specialized diets and more nested positions within the interaction networks. We argue that wing shape variation may play an important role as a source of interspecific variation leading to food specialization within tropical bat communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bats play crucial ecosystem services as seed dispersers, pollinators, controllers of insects, and nutrient recyclers. However, there has not been a thorough global review evaluating these roles in bats across all biogeographical regions of the world. We reviewed the literature published during the last two decades and identified 283 relevant studies: 78 dealt with the control of potential insect pests by bats, 80 related to the suppression of other arthropods, 60 on the dispersal of native or endemic seeds, 11 dealt with the dispersal of seeds of introduced plants, 29 on the pollination of native or endemic plants, 1 study on pollination of introduced plants, and 24 on the use of guano as fertilizer. Our literature search showed that queries combining the terms "seed dispersal," "insectivorous bats," "nectarivorous bats," "use of guano," and "ecosystem services" returned 577 studies, but half were experimental in nature. We found that the evaluation of ecosystem services by bats has been mostly conducted in the Neotropical and Palearctic regions. To detect differences across relevant studies, and to explain trends in the study of ecosystem services provided by bats, we performed generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) fitted with a Poisson distribution to analyze potential differences among sampling methods. We identified 409 bat species that provide ecosystem services, 752 insect species consumed by bats and 549 plant species either dispersed or pollinated by bats. Our review summarizes the importance of conserving bat populations and the ecological services they provide, which is especially important during the current pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seed dispersal is an important process for the regeneration and maintenance of forests; This mechanism allows plants to colonize new sites and maintain the structure of the population. Bats have been recognized as effective dispersers of seeds in several tropical forest ecosystems, due to the ability to defecate in flight, fly over open areas and exert a germination effect on released seeds. In this study was to evaluate diet preference of fruit bats in a tropical dry forest in the department of Tolima. The analysis of 63 dietary records of 14 bat species allowed to identify 11 plant species, three genera and one morphospecies. Bidens pilosa, Piper crassinervium and Physalis peruviana L. showed the highest consumption. Artibeus lituratus had the widest niche breath, followed by Artibeus planirostris. Low overlays were present among these bat species, which could reflect a niche segregation as a strategy to avoid competition between sympatric species. The consumption of fruits in a successional shrubs state is highlighted, which reaffirms the key role of bats in the dispersion of pioneer species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the first record of the bat Platyrrhinus albericoi Velazco, 2005 on the eastern slope of the Colombian Central Andes. Currently there are records of this species on the western slope of the Central Andes, eastern slope of the western Andes, and both slope of the eastern Andes in Colombia. We performed a morphological review of the specimens from several Colombian collections and analyzed their character variation, life zone, and distribution in Colombia. The geographic range of P. albericoi is increased and a new life zone, Premontane Wet Forest (bmh-PM in Spanish), is added to its distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]