engleski

DNA metabarcoding revealed expected but also some exceptional prey species in the diet of carabid beetles in Mediterranean agriculture

Carabids are mainly predatory beetles but still certain proportion of them are omnivores and herbivores. Since they feed on pest insects and weeds and being abundant among the soil-active arthropods capable of consuming close to their body mass of food daily, carabids are considered important within the agroecosystem food webs. The DNA metabarcoding as one of the state-of-the-art methods for depicting trophic interactions were used to evaluate the ecosystem services of carabids within Mediterranean vineyards and olive orchards in Croatia, under Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Ecological Pest Management (EPM). Carabids were collected at five sites including unmanaged site, and subdued to the molecular gut content analyses using NGS. After dissection, DNA from the gut content was extracted and amplified using general and newly designed carbide-exclusion primers within COI gene, and successfully sequenced. Here we present the results of trophic interactions in respect of carabids potential to feed on agricultural pests but also on overall diversity that was discovered by eDNA. High diversity of invertebrates within their gut content, intraguild predation and plant DNA were revealed. The results support the use of agricultural measures to promote higher biodiversity in the Mediterranean, and to sustain natural enemies of crop pest

DNA metabarcoding, gut content analyses, insects, agriculture

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