A new tent roost of Thomas’ fruit‐eating bat, artibeus watsoni (chiroptera: Phyllostomidae), in panama

Abstract

Thomas' fruit-eating bat, Artibeus watsoni, is known to alter leaves of a wide variety of tropical plants to construct tent roosts. On Barro Colorado Island and Gigante Peninsula in the canal zone, Panama, A. watsoni is found to use the black palm, Astrocaryum standleyanum, as its tent plant. Bats cut the first five to ten pinnae from the proximal side of the terminal blade and chew additional four to nine pinnae without severing their central veins. The distance from the frond rachis to the cut decreases distally, leaving an inverted V-shaped cut path. The distal portions of the bifurcated blade are then collapsed and folded to form the 'bifid' tent With an inverted boat-shaped cavity underneath. All tents were in fronds of trunkless juvenile plants.