Title
Sucrose hydrolysis does not limit food intake by Pallas's long-tongued bats
Date Issued
01 January 2008
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Herrera M L.G.
Mancina G C.A.
Abstract
Nectarivorous bats include very dilute nectar in their natural diet, and recent work with Pallas's long-tongued bat Glossophaga soricina showed that sugar (energy) intake rate decreased at dilute sucrose solutions. However, chiropterophillous nectar is composed mainly of the hexoses glucose and fructose. Because bats fed hexose nectar would save the delay of hydrolyzing sucrose, we hypothesized that sugar intake rate should be higher on this diet than on sucrose nectar. We compared intake response in Pallas's long-tongued bats offered 1 : 1 glucose-fructose (hexose) and sucrose diets at 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% (mass/volume) sugar solutions. We also tested the hypothesis that sucrose hydrolysis limits food intake in bats. Intake response was the same in bats fed both types of diet: sugar intake rate was lower in dilute solutions and then increased with sugar concentration. Similar intake responses in both diets indicate that sucrose hydrolysis alone does not limit food intake and support the idea that the burden of processing excess water in dilute solutions plays a major role. © 2007 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
Start page
119
End page
124
Volume
81
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Bioquímica, Biología molecular
Zoología, Ornitología, Entomología, ciencias biológicas del comportamiento
DOI
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-38749151596
PubMed ID
Source
Physiological and Biochemical Zoology
ISSN of the container
15222152
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus