Use of Molecular Gut Content Analysis to Decipher the Range of Food Plants of the Invasive Spotted Lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula
Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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Insects 2020, 11(4), 215; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11040215
Received: 14 February 2020
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Revised: 25 March 2020
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Accepted: 26 March 2020
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Published: 1 April 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Gut Content Analysis: Deciphering Trophic Interactions of Insects)
Spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae), is an introduced highly invasive insect pest in the US that poses a significant risk to forestry and agriculture. Assessing and predicting plant usage of the lanternfly has been challenging, and little is known regarding the lanternfly nymph association with its host plants. In this study, we focused on: (a) providing a protocol for using molecular markers for food plant identification of L. delicatula; (b) determining whether the ingested plant DNA corresponds with DNA of the plants from which the lanternfly was collected; and, (c) investigating the spectrum of ingested plants. We utilized gut contents of third and fourth instar nymphs that were collected from multiple plants; we isolated ingested plant DNA and identified consumed plants. We demonstrated that (a) up to 534 bp of the rbcL gene from ingested plants can be detected in L. delicatula guts, (b) ingested plants in ~93% of the nymphs did not correspond with the plants from which the nymphs were collected, and (c) both introduced and native plants, as well as woody and non-woody plants, were ingested. This information will aid effective the monitoring and management of the lanternfly, as well as predict the lanternfly host plants with range expansion.
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Keywords:
insect gut content; invasive species; Lycorma delicatula; plant DNA barcoding; trophic interactions
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Avanesyan, A.; Lamp, W.O. Use of Molecular Gut Content Analysis to Decipher the Range of Food Plants of the Invasive Spotted Lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula. Insects 2020, 11, 215. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11040215
AMA Style
Avanesyan A, Lamp WO. Use of Molecular Gut Content Analysis to Decipher the Range of Food Plants of the Invasive Spotted Lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula. Insects. 2020; 11(4):215. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11040215
Chicago/Turabian StyleAvanesyan, Alina, and William O. Lamp. 2020. "Use of Molecular Gut Content Analysis to Decipher the Range of Food Plants of the Invasive Spotted Lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula" Insects 11, no. 4: 215. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11040215
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