By Susan Milius
A study of creatures that fly around at night supplies a new answer to the question of why some bats avoid hunting under a full moon.
Earlier work suggested that the bats were hiding from predators, according to Alexander Lang of the Karl Franzens University Graz in Austria. However, he and an international team of colleagues now propose that for insect-hunting bats, scarce food may be a major reason why they stay at home. One of their primary targets, katydids, also tend not to fly around much on bright, moonlit nights, the researchers report in an upcoming Oecologia.