Bats of the Great Dismal Swamp 21 



with sunset. As spring progressed, red bats emerged later in the evening, 

 when we would observe them with our truck headlights as we drove out 

 from the interior of the GDSNWR. 



We recorded 10 evenings with no bat activity (Table 2). On four 

 evenings when the sky was clear and no bats were observed, the 

 temperatures were 6° and 8°C in December, 21°C in June, and 14°C in 

 October. In June and throughout the summer, when temperatures were 

 high, bats appeared very late in the evening, often near last light, when 

 the exact time of emergence could not be accurately determined. On 6 

 October, a warm night when no bats were flying, the moon was full. 

 Moonlight severely restricts the activity of many bat species, because 

 they are either avoiding predators (Fenton et al. 1977) or responding to 

 lower insect abundance (Anthony et al. 1981). It rained on half of the 

 six cloudy evenings when no bats were observed; the temperatures 

 ranged from 7° to 20° C (x - 14° C) on those six evenings, and only the 

 7°C recording was <10°C. However, on seven evenings with overcast 

 skies but no rain, bats were actively foraging and subsequently collected. 



DISCUSSION 



Four species of bats — big brown, silver-haired, hoary, and 

 Seminole — constitute new records for the Dismal Swamp and south- 

 eastern Virginia, and the Seminole bat represents a new record for 

 Virginia. 



Table 2. Species of bats collected by month, from September through June, 1983-1986. a 





Species 



S 



O 



N 



D 



J 



F 



M 



A 



M 



J 



Totals 





Silver-haired bat 









1:0 





2:1 



3:1 









6:2 





Eastern pipstrelle 





2:2 



0:1 















0:1 



2:4 





Big brown bat 













1:0 



1:2 



1:1 







3:3 





Red bat 



1:0 



4:0 



2:0 



5:0 



5.0 



11:0 



6:1 



7:7 



1:0 





42:8 





Seminole bat 





0:1 



















0:1 





Hoary bat 







0:1 

















0:1 





Evening bat 



1:0 



3:1 



0:1 







1:0 



2:3 



4:1 







11:6 



Bats collected: 



2 



13 



5 



6 



5 



16 



19 



21 



1 



1 



89 





Days sampled: 



2 



12 



12 



10 



3 



9 



7 



14 



5 



3 



77 





Days with no activity: 



colon 



1 2 2 

 indicate number 



1 2 1 

 of males and females (M:F). 



1 



10 



a Numbers separated by 





