Sympatric Bat Species Prey Opportunistically on a Major Moth Pest of Pecans

Native predators provide undervalued pest suppression services to agriculture. Studies of pest consumption by insectivorous bats tend to focus upon single species in large, centralized colonies, while bats dispersed in small groups within the agricultural matrix often go unnoticed. Pecan trees, Cary...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSustainability Vol. 11; no. 22; p. 6365
Main Authors Braun de Torrez, Elizabeth C., Brown, Veronica A., McCracken, Gary F., Kunz, Thomas H.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.11.2019
Subjects
Agricultural ecosystems
Agriculture
Agroforestry
Animal behavior
Bats
Butterflies & moths
Chiroptera
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Feces
Foraging behavior
Lasiurus borealis
Nuts
Parasites
Pesticides
Pests
Pheromones
Polymerase chain reaction
Predation
Predators
Prey
Sustainability
Sympatric populations
Tree crops
Trees
United States > US
Texas
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Summary:Native predators provide undervalued pest suppression services to agriculture. Studies of pest consumption by insectivorous bats tend to focus upon single species in large, centralized colonies, while bats dispersed in small groups within the agricultural matrix often go unnoticed. Pecan trees, Carya illinoinensis, and the destructive pecan nut casebearer (PNC) moth, Acrobasis nuxvorella, comprise a tightly linked host–parasite system in a widespread agroecosystem native to North America. Here we use a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay of fecal DNA to document predation on PNC moths by an assemblage of sympatric bat species across episodic peaks in PNC abundance. Although five species of bats consume PNC moths, greater predation by a solitary tree-roosting bat (eastern red bat, Lasiurus borealis) than other species is suggested by a higher frequency of PNC occurrence and quantity of PNC gene copies in fecal samples. Consumption of PNC by bats during all documented peaks in moth activity suggests that predation pressure occurs throughout the PNC season. Our results highlight the need to consider multi-species assemblages and different foraging strategies when assessing pest suppression services, particularly in agroforestry or tree crops. Assessing the diet of only common or easily captured species limits our ability to accurately document pest consumption by bats.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su11226365