DOI: 10.5061/dryad.343nd
title: Data from: What you need is what you eat? Prey selection by the bat Myotis daubentonii

description: Optimal foraging theory predicts that predators are selective when faced
 with abundant prey, but become less picky when prey gets sparse.
 Insectivorous bats in temperate regions are faced with the challenge of
 building up fat reserves vital for hibernation during a period of
 decreasing arthropod abundances. According to optimal foraging theory,
 prehibernating bats should adopt a less selective feeding behaviour – yet
 empirical studies have revealed many apparently generalized species to be
 composed of specialist individuals. Targeting the diet of the bat Myotis
 daubentonii, we used a combination of molecular techniques to test for
 seasonal changes in prey selectivity and individual-level variation in
 prey preferences. DNA metabarcoding was used to characterize both the prey
 contents of bat droppings and the insect community available as prey. To
 test for dietary differences among M. daubentonii individuals, we used ten
 microsatellite loci to assign droppings to individual bats. The comparison
 between consumed and available prey revealed a preference for certain prey
 items regardless of availability. Nonbiting midges (Chironomidae) remained
 the most highly consumed prey at all times, despite a significant increase
 in the availability of black flies (Simuliidae) towards the end of the
 season. The bats sampled showed no evidence of individual specialization
 in dietary preferences. Overall, our approach offers little support for
 optimal foraging theory. Thus, it shows how novel combinations of genetic
 markers can be used to test general theory, targeting patterns at both the
 level of prey communities and individual predators.
description: Raw labeled reads from
 Insect trap samplesCollected on daily basis
 using three emergence traps and one Malaise trap. DNA extracted from bulk
 samples using a modified salt-extraction method. Sequenced using Ion
 Torrent PGM. FASTQ file header stands for:
 @READNUMBER;barcodelabel=TRAPTYPE-DAY_MONTH.labeled_insect.fastqRaw labeled reads from faecal samples of Myotis daubentoniiCollected on daily basis one single location. DNA extracted from individual pellets using Qiagen Stool Mini Kit. Sequenced using Ion Torrent PGM. FASTQ file header stands for: @READNUMBER;barcodelabel=SAMPLEID-DAY_MONTH.labeled_poop.fastqOTU sequencesClustered to OTUs using USEARCH algorithm with default (97%) similarity. This way there is a little bit of oversplitting, and OTUs belonging to same biological species are clustered subsequently.label_otus.faReadmap linking trimmed reads and samplesThe readmap shows read count for each sample. The readmap is constructed using USEARCH software.readmap.tabTechnical data sheet for IonTorrent PGM runsThe data generated by Ion Torrent PGM for each run in hte study.Ion_Torrent_runs.pdfCommand pipeline used for bioinformaticsThe file contains all the commandds used in this study to generate the final data. The bioinformatics was carried out at servers on CSC - IT Center for SCience in Finland .commands_unix_csc.shThe final readmapThis readmap contains the final read counts for each sample. The difference to raw readmap is that some OTU's in this version have been clumped together.readmap_spp.xlsxMicrosatellite Data for Myotis daubentonii faecal pelletsThe zipped folder includes original consensus genotypes (cons_2Feb2015.txt), R commands to cluster individual bat haplotypes (Nautela_genotyping.R), and final genotypes (NautelaUniqueProfile_cons_2Feb2015_mismatch4.html).NautelaMicrosatelliteData.zip