Bats: nice with rice? | Global development | theguardian.com
▻http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/apr/16/bats-nice-with-rice
Des #chauves-souris pour éliminer des insectes nuisibles au #riz
Bats that prey on a major rice pest in Thailand could save paddy harvests worth millions of dollars and help contribute to better food security, claim scientists in a paper published in Biological Conservation.
Using data from a previous study and their own field survey, the scientists put a value on the wrinkle-lipped bat’s predation on the white-backed planthopper, a migratory insect pest in Asia that feeds on rice shoots.
The scientists calculated that each wrinkle-lipped bat (Tadarida plicata) consumes about 1,130 white-backed planthoppers (Sogatella furcifera) daily. With a population of almost 8m, the bat species may prevent annual paddy losses of nearly 2,900 tons – enough to feed 26,000 people for a year – with an export value of $1.2m (£716,000).