Metabarcoding prey DNA from fecal samples of adult dragonflies shows no predicted sex differences, and substantial inter-individual variation, in diets

PeerJ

article

André Morrill¹  Kari M. Kaunisto²  Julia J. Mlynarek³  Ella Sippola²  Eero J. Vesterinen⁵  Mark R. Forbes¹ 

[1] Department of Biology, Carleton University;Biodiversity Unit, University of Turku;Insectarium de Montreal;Department of Ecology and Genetics, University of Oulu;Department of Biology, University of Turku;Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

关键词: Diet analysis;    fDNA;    Metabarcoding;    Odonata;    Prey species;    Niche differentiation;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.12634

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Sexes often differ in foraging and diet, which is associated with sex differences in size, trophic morphology, use of habitats, and/or life history tactics. Herein, strikingly similar diets were found for adult sexes of a dragonfly (Leucorrhinia intacta 5% of samples included five species of dipterans, two hemipterans, two spider species and one parasitic mite. The mite was not traditional prey as its presence was likely due to DNA contamination of samples arising through parasitism or possibly via accidental consumption during grooming, and therefore the mite was excluded from diet characterizations. Common prey species were found with statistically indistinguishable frequencies in male and female diets, with one exception of an aphid more often found in male diets, although this pattern was not robust to corrections for multiple statistical tests. While rare prey species were often found in diets of only one sex, instances of this were more frequent in the more oft-sampled females, suggesting sampling artefact. Sexes did not differ in the mean prey species richness in their diets. Overall, sexes showed statistically indistinguishable diets both on a prey species-by-species basis and in terms of multivariate characterizations of diet composition, derived from presence-absence data of prey species analyzed via PERMANOVA and accumulation curves. Males and females may have similar diets by being both opportunistic and generalist predators of arthropods, using the same foraging habitats and having similar sizes and flight agilities. Notably, similarities in diet between sexes occur alongside large interindividual differences in diet, within sexes. Researchers intending on explaining adaptive sex differences in diet should consider characteristics of species whose sexes show similar diets.

【 授权许可】

CC BY