What do mouse lemurs feed on - and who feeds on them?

Multi-layer collection & sequencing in Madagascar to reveal the diet and parasites of Mme. Berthe’s (CR) and Grey mouse lemurs (LC) and for rapid arthropod community assessment

The Menabe Central region is assigned top conservation priority within the biodiversity hotspot Madagascar and in 2015 the „Aire Protégée Menabe Antimena" (APMA) to protect one of the world’s hottest hotspots. It is home to several threatened lemur species, including the critically endangered Microcebus berthae and the more widespread M. murinus, along with many locally endemic vertebrates and a rich arthropod fauna. Populations of M. berthae have disappeared from all southern forest patches, whereas populations persist in the northern part of the APMA. We hypothesize that the local extinction of these fauni-frugivorous nocturnal lemurs is linked to changing arthropod occurrences and Malaria prevalence.

Our goal is to assess the arthropod communities in different forest parts and to examine the M. berthae and M. murinus diet. This includes morphological identification of arthropods and barcoding of individual specimen, as well as metabarcoding of arthropod bulk samples and lemur fecal samples collected at various sites within the APMA. By barcoding of female Anopheles individuals, the prevalence of Plasmodium species is investigates as well as the hosts the mosquitoes have fed on. We closely collaborate with the Mention Zoologie et Biologie Animale at the University of Antananarivo for morphological arthropod ID and with the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar for ONT sequencing, and also contribute to capacity building in Menabe Central.