Kerivoula intermedia with one of the killer big ants still attached

Hi Folks
Last night was clear and dry and we set traps KL0739, KL0741, KL0743, KL0745, KL0747, KL0749, KL0751, KL0753, KL0755, KL0757, KL0759, KL0761. We closed trap KL0745 at 9 pm because of the presence of big ants. You may have wondered about these ants in the past, and unfortunately today I evidence for you of just how harmful they can be. When we checked the traps this morning, we found that one of the other traps had been over run by the ants. They weren’t there at the night check, but had obviously found the trap overnight. Sadly, at the bottom of the trap were two dead Kerivoula intermedia. . You can see just how big these ants are — in the photo is one of the soldier ants and its head is about the size of one of your fingernails. The ant itself is about 2.5 cm long, and the head and body of the bat is only about 3.5 cm, so it is a very sad way for the bats to die. That’s why we take the traps down if we see any sign of them at the evening check.

Although the loss of any of our batty friends is sad for us, we don’t let the animal die in vain. The body is brought back and preserved as a specimen, so that it can be used for other research projects. We take extra measurements, so in addition to forearm and weight, we will measure the tail, the tibia, the hind foot, the ears and the head and body length.

The specimen is stored in alcohol which will preserve it for decades or even longer, so that it is available to other researchers in the future, or for other parts of our own research. Julie will probably use these two herself to look at the skull in more detail. Just as bats have different wing shapes, they have different skull shapes, and this influences what they can eat. It’s hard to eat a big crunchy beetle if you have a small fragile skull! Beetle-eaters usually have strong jaws and teeth and wide areas for the jaw muscles to attach to, whereas moth-eaters tend to have more delicate skulls and smaller, sharper teeth.

Closer view of the big ant, you can see that even in death, the ant's mandibles (biting mouth parts) are still firmly buried in the dead K. intermedia

So on to the data, you will notice that under “band” the two intermedia that died have a “TK” number. This is a specimen number which indicates the date the bat was prepared as a specimen. TK100602.1 has “TK” for my initials, then 10 = 2010, 06 = June, 02 = 2nd and the .1 tells you which specimen for that date it was, just in case (as we did today) you have more than one.

Dr Kingston