Food habits of northern (Eptesicus nilssoni) and brown long-eared (Plecotus auritus) bats in Sweden

Food habits of sympatric northern and brown long-eared bats were examined by analysis of droppings collected in six maternity roosts of each species. Relatively large, nocturnal flying insects such as moths (Lepidoptera), June-beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), crane-flies (Diptera: Tipulidae) and caddis-flies (Trichoptera), were eaten by both bat species, representing 47% (by volume) of the northern and 57% of the long-eared bat's diet. Small dipterans were important food items for the northern bat (47% of the diet) but not for the long-eared bat, which instead consumed large amounts of diurnal or predominantly non-flying taxa such as blow-flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae), earwigs (Dermaptera), spiders (Araneae) and harvestmen (Opiliones) (40% of the diet). The difference in food selection by the two species is probably due to the different foraging strategies used.