An appetite for pests: Synanthropic insectivorous bats exploit cotton pest irruptions and consume various deleterious arthropods
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An appetite for pests : Synanthropic insectivorous bats exploit cotton pest irruptions and consume various deleterious arthropods. / Cohen, Yuval; Bar-David, Shirli; Nielsen, Martin; Bohmann, Kristine; Korine, Carmi.
In: Molecular Ecology, Vol. 29, No. 6, 2020, p. 1185-1198.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - An appetite for pests
T2 - Synanthropic insectivorous bats exploit cotton pest irruptions and consume various deleterious arthropods
AU - Cohen, Yuval
AU - Bar-David, Shirli
AU - Nielsen, Martin
AU - Bohmann, Kristine
AU - Korine, Carmi
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Conservation biological control (CBC) seeks to minimize the deleterious effects of agricultural pests by enhancing the efficiency of natural enemies. Despite the documented potential of insectivorous bats to consume pests, many synanthropic bat species are still underappreciated as beneficial species. We investigated the diet of Kuhl's pipistrelle (Pipistrellus kuhlii), a common synanthropic insectivorous bat that forages in urban and agricultural areas, to determine whether it may function as a natural enemy in CBC. Faecal samples of P. kuhlii were collected throughout the cotton-growing season from five roost sites near cotton fields located in a Mediterranean agroecosystem, Israel, and analyzed using DNA metabarcoding. Additionally, data on estimated abundance of major cotton pests were collected. We found that the diet of P. kuhlii significantly varied according to sites and dates and comprised 27 species of agricultural pests that were found in 77.2% of the samples, including pests of key economic concern. The dominant prey was the widespread cottonpest, the pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella, found in 31% of the samples and in all the roosts. Pink bollworm abundance was positively correlated with its occurrence in the bat diet. Furthermore, the bats' dietary breadth narrowed, while temporal dietary overlap increased, in relation to increasing frequencies of pink bollworms in the diet. This suggests that P. kuhlii exploits pink bollworm irruptions by opportunistic feeding. We suggest that synanthropic bats provide important pest suppression services, may function as CBC agents of cotton pests and potentially contribute to suppress additional deleterious arthropods found in their diet in high frequencies.
AB - Conservation biological control (CBC) seeks to minimize the deleterious effects of agricultural pests by enhancing the efficiency of natural enemies. Despite the documented potential of insectivorous bats to consume pests, many synanthropic bat species are still underappreciated as beneficial species. We investigated the diet of Kuhl's pipistrelle (Pipistrellus kuhlii), a common synanthropic insectivorous bat that forages in urban and agricultural areas, to determine whether it may function as a natural enemy in CBC. Faecal samples of P. kuhlii were collected throughout the cotton-growing season from five roost sites near cotton fields located in a Mediterranean agroecosystem, Israel, and analyzed using DNA metabarcoding. Additionally, data on estimated abundance of major cotton pests were collected. We found that the diet of P. kuhlii significantly varied according to sites and dates and comprised 27 species of agricultural pests that were found in 77.2% of the samples, including pests of key economic concern. The dominant prey was the widespread cottonpest, the pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella, found in 31% of the samples and in all the roosts. Pink bollworm abundance was positively correlated with its occurrence in the bat diet. Furthermore, the bats' dietary breadth narrowed, while temporal dietary overlap increased, in relation to increasing frequencies of pink bollworms in the diet. This suggests that P. kuhlii exploits pink bollworm irruptions by opportunistic feeding. We suggest that synanthropic bats provide important pest suppression services, may function as CBC agents of cotton pests and potentially contribute to suppress additional deleterious arthropods found in their diet in high frequencies.
KW - bats
KW - conservation biological control
KW - cotton pest
KW - DNA metabarcoding
KW - SAUNDERS LEPIDOPTERA-GELECHIIDAE
KW - FREE-TAILED BATS
KW - KUHLS PIPISTRELLE
KW - MYOTIS-LUCIFUGUS
KW - ECONOMIC VALUE
KW - PINK-BOLLWORM
KW - EXTRAPOLATION
KW - CONSERVATION
KW - RAREFACTION
KW - RESISTANCE
U2 - 10.1111/mec.15393
DO - 10.1111/mec.15393
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 32153071
VL - 29
SP - 1185
EP - 1198
JO - Molecular Ecology
JF - Molecular Ecology
SN - 0962-1083
IS - 6
ER -
ID: 259878272