ABSTRACT. We investigated the richness, composition, and species relative abundance of a terrestrial small mammal community in a Deciduous Forest area in the austral boundary of the Atlantic Forest. The microhabitat use of the most common species was also investigated. Six rodents -Akodon montensis (Thomas, 1913) what could facilitate aboveground movements, and was negatively correlated to mature forest indicators, which reinforce the idea that this species has opportunistic habits.

This study describes the assemblage of ectoparasitic bat flies, their hosts, and parasitism rates in an Atlantic Forest area in southern Brazil. Bats were captured monthly for one year at two sites. We captured 95 bats belonging to nine species, but only Artibeus lituratus, Artibeus fimbriatus, Sturnira lilium (Phyllostomidae) and Myotis nigricans (Vespertilionidae) were found to be parasitized. The bat flies collected were: Streblidae -Paratrichobius longicrus (on A. lituratus) and Megistopoda aranea (on A. lituratus and A. fimbriatus), Megistopoda proxima (on S. lilium); Nycteribiidae -Basilia andersoni (on M. nigricans). Artibeus fimbriatus and S. lilium showed the highest values of parasite prevalence (60 and 35.7%, respectively) and mean intensities (1.9 and 2.1, respectively). Only two parasitized individuals of A. lituratus were found, resulting in the lowest local rate of parasite prevalence (2.6%) and mean intensity (1.0). This low rate may result from the use of ephemeral roosts in the area. The high values of frequency and number of flies per host on A. fimbriatus and S. lilium in relation to other studies could be explained by the low richness of bat flies here, and in turn, by low competition among fly species per host.

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Bat species have differences in diet composition, use of vertical space, and nocturnal activity period. We analyzed diet and partitioning of spatial and temporal resources among fruit bats, and the influence of fruit availability on the number of bat captures in the southern boundary of the Atlantic Forest. Artibeus lituratus and A. fimbriatus fed mainly on Ficus, whereas Sturnira lilium fed on Solanaceae, Piperaceae, and Ficus. However, we did not find correlation between number of fruit bat captures with fruit availability. S. lilium was more active at dusk, whereas A. fimbriatus and A. lituratus were more active at dawn. S. lilium flew more in the understory than canopy and A. lituratus and A. fimbriatus did not show differences in the use of vertical space. There was no difference in the use of vertical space among these fruit bats. We showed that differences in one dimension of the niche, such as food, can help to explain differences in another dimension, such as space use. Niche overlap is greater for related species and studies about niche overlap addressing more than one spatial dimension can elucidate the patterns in use of these resources and also the understanding about bat community composition.

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