Fecal matters: implementing classical Coleoptera species lists with metabarcoding data from passerine bird feces

Abstract

Diversity inventories are critical to creating accurate species range maps and estimating population sizes, which in turn lead to better informed landscape and wildlife management decisions. Metabarcoding has facilitated large-scale environmental diversity surveys. However, the use of a metabarcoding approach with bird feces to survey arthropod diversity is still relatively undeveloped. The aim of this study was to see if and how a metabarcoding approach with bird feces could contribute to a saproxylic Coleoptera survey of traditional insect traps. We compared two methods of surveying saproxylic Coleoptera diversity (metabarcoding birds feces and deploying traditional traps) over two elevations in a mountain system. The two methods caught different species and different levels of functional guild richness. The metabarcoding method successfully recorded both distinct and overlapping portions of diversity from traditional collections, and the approach was also effective in signaling the presence of both rare species and nine country records. Our results show that metabarcoding Passerine bird feces can be successful when used alongside traditional collection methods to capture a broad diversity of saproxylic Coleoptera. This method, however, has quantitative and qualitative limitations, including the inability to produce species abundance data as well as the generation of false positives and negatives due to biases within the metabarcoding pipeline. Implications for insect conservation As many terrestrial ecosystems lose insect diversity, insect diversity surveys are essential to understand the scope of the loss. Despite metabarcoding approach shortcomings, the declining costs and shorter survey and processing time required for this approach compared to traditional survey methods indicate that it can be a valuable addition to the toolkit for saproxylic Coleoptera diversity surveys.

Seasonal Diet Partition among Top Predators of a Small Island, Iriomotejima Island in the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan

“…from Iriomotejima Island leads to the possibility that ambiguity in taxonomic assignment, or the failure to amplify its sequence due to mutations in primer biding region, contributed to the non-detection of Rhabdoblatta sp. Previous study that used a primer set amplifying the same region as the current study also noted the presence of uncertain taxonomic assignment resulting from an insu cient insect database 30 . Collecting sequence information on insects from Iriomotejima Island is a necessary step for the future.…”

Seasonal diet partition among top predators of a small island, Iriomote Island in the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan

“…from Iriomote Island leads to the possibility that ambiguity in taxonomic assignment, or the failure to amplify its sequence due to mutations in primer binding regions, contributed to the non-detection of Rhabdoblatta sp. Bookwalter et al 39 whom used a primer set amplifying the same region as the current study also noted the presence of uncertain taxonomic assignment resulting from an insufficient insect database. Collecting sequence information on insects from Iriomote Island is a necessary future step.…”

Understanding the Coleoptera community at the tree‐line using taxonomic and functional guild approaches

“…A total of 8995 specimens were collected, representing 237 species (146 saproxylic) and 41 families (Appendix 1). A total of 171 of these species found in this study were new records for Andorra (112 of these records were published in Bookwalter et al (2023), as the data in these studies partly overlapped). The three most abundant species were Table 3 and Figure 4).…”

“…(2) forest characteristics that are related to higher levels of sunlight, volume of dead wood and density of larger trees to predict higher taxonomic abundance, taxonomic richness, functional feeding guild abundance and functional feeding guild richness. This study was conducted as part of a larger research programme monitoring climate change in high elevation Andorra (Bookwalter et al, 2023).…”

“…In this study, we expected the following outcomes: (1) abundance and richness of saprotroph Coleoptera (beetles that feed upon dead or decaying organic matter) and saproxylic Coleoptera (beetles that depend on dead or decaying wood at some point in their life cycle) to be closely linked to the volume of dead wood and large trees and (2) forest characteristics that are related to higher levels of sunlight, volume of dead wood and density of larger trees to predict higher taxonomic abundance, taxonomic richness, functional feeding guild abundance and functional feeding guild richness. This study was conducted as part of a larger research programme monitoring climate change in high elevation Andorra (Bookwalter et al, 2023).…”