Home Sweet Home: Monstera punctulata As a Roost for a Neotropical Bat

 

Pedro Adrián Aguilar-Rodríguez & Pedro Díaz Jiménez

 

ABSTRACT

Neotropical frugivorous bats use a variety of roosting sites to spend the day, including leaves that they modify by chewing into the major ribs to allow collapse of the leaf to improve their sheltering qualities. These so called “tents” are found in nearly 100 species in at least 19 plant families, including Araceae. The big aroid leaves from genera like Anthurium, Philodendron, and Xanthosoma, are commonly chosen to serve as roosts for tent-making bats. Here we report a new aroid used as a tent, Monstera punctulata in Mexico, the first record of a “tent” in Araceae for this country. In addition, we discuss the overall importance of this family as roosting sites for tent-making bats.

 

KEYWORDS

Artibeus, Los Tuxtlas, Monstera, roosting behavior, tent-making