Evaluation of sociosexual signaling of color in Pteronotus gymnonotus (MAMMALIA: CHIROPTERA) in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
Animal communication; spectrophotometry; parasitism; reproduction; color vision.
Bats are mammals that belongs to the Order Chiroptera, known for typifying the only group on this Class capable to realize true flights. They have high diversity - around 1240 species have been described in the world – and compose the second largest order of mammals concerning to the number of species. Following all this heterogeneity, they also have a huge variety on the group ecology, such as feeding, predation, sociosexual interactions, sorts of roost and ecosystems where they occurs, as well, their phylogenetic relationships with primates. Despite the vasty amount of scientific studies about their ecological aspects, little is known about how these animals recognize themselves visually and, even though the postulations about the visual activity of them are few, as the fact of seeing ultraviolet light, it represents a very interesting work. Besides that, connections between these individuals and ectoparasites, whether if this interaction can cause any direct effect to phenotypes or to either intra or interspecific sociosexual behaviors remain poorly described, or there’s any direct relation between their reproductive aspects and the animal fur color intensity. Considering the low knowledge regarding to the visual communication in bats, the high diversity of the group, large adaptive indexes, even as the phylogenetic proximity with primates, in this research, we aim to evaluate the influence of insectivorous bats fur color on the sociosexual communication and camouflage, moreover, their relation with the reproductive cycle from the Pteronotus gymnonotus species.