Accidental consumption of Atta cephalotes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) by Artibeus lituratus (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae)

Abstract

During a 6-months research carried out in the Robles village (Jamundí municipality, Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia) in 2014, bat feces were collected to determine the diet of fruit-eating bats. This study area included farms and tropical dry forest remnants, where A. lituratus was the most generalist species, with 10 different plant species recorded in its diet, including Ficus, Psidium, Mangifera, Cecropia, and Piper species (Montoya-Bustamante et al., 2016). Within two (out of 130) different fecal samples an individual of Atta cephalotes (both workers) were found associated to Psidium guajava seeds and pulp