Nine species of bats live in New York State. All of these species are small, from the diminutive eastern pipistrelle (2.9-3.5 inches long; wing-span 8-10 niches), to the more sizeable hoary bat (5.1-5.9 inches long; wing-span 14.5-16.5 niches), the largest bat in the northeast. Although bats worldwide feed on a variety of items including nectar, fish, frogs, blood, and fruit, all of New York's bats feed exclusively on night-flying insects. While some types of bats tend to specialize on one or more groups of insects, others eat a variety of prey items. The big brown bat, for instance, has strong, powerful jaws and feeds mainly on beetles and other hard-bodied insects. Hoary bats and silver-haired bats like to eat moths, and little brown bats and eastern pipistrelles have a diverse diet that includes beetles, true bugs, moths, flies, wasps, and other insects. Most species, even those with strong preferences, can vary their diets depending upon the season and availability of prey. Because of the number of insects bats consume, they are believed to regulate populations of forest andagricultural insect pests. For example, in a study of a colony of 150 brown bats in an agricultural area, researchers estimated that the colony consumed over 1.25 million insects in a year. This is not surprising, considering that a single bat may eat 3,000 insects on a given summer night. Bats roosting and foraging in New York forests consume forest and eastern tent moths, and a variety of other potential forest pests.
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