Abstract To meet growing global food demand, producers are actively searching for ways tocrop yield. One way to boost yield is to reduce arthropod damage. However, insecticides are becoming less effective and can have detrimental effects on human health and the environment. Learning how to harness natural pest control is one way to reduce arthropod damage to crops and avoid adverse effects of insecticide use. Therefore, we examined the diets of two bat species that are likely to provide pest control services across the United States corn belt: the eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) and the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus). We also show that primer choice can impact the diversity of taxa detected and resecent adavances in primer design can improve diet detection studies. Using new ANML primers to isolate prey DNA in fecal material, we found a more diverse diet than previously reported for both bat species. Big brown bats consumed an average of 16.2 species from 8.5 genera. Red bats consumed an average of 28.6 species from 15.8 genera. We found pest genera in 92 % of big brown bat samples and 94 % of red bat samples. For both bat species, approximately two pest genera were detected in each sample. Corn rootworms (Diabrotica), Cloverworms (Hypena), plant bugs (Lygus), wireworms (Melanotus), seed corn beetles (Stenolophus), and armyworms (Spodoptera) were the most frequently consumed agricultural pests. We confirm earlier studies that document beetles (Coleoptera) and moths (Lepidoptera) as the most common prey items of big brown and red bats, respectively. However, we also document a diverse diet for both bat species that includes many true bugs (Hemiptera). Because pest control services of big brown and red bats are not completely overlapped, we conclude that a diverse bat community is essential to maximize pest control services by bats.

中文翻译：

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美国玉米带常见蝙蝠物种消耗的农业害虫：DNA 引物选择的重要性

摘要 为了满足日益增长的全球粮食需求，生产者正在积极寻找提高产量的方法。提高产量的一种方法是减少节肢动物的伤害。然而，杀虫剂的效果越来越差，可能对人类健康和环境产生不利影响。学习如何利用自然虫害防治是减少节肢动物对作物的损害和避免使用杀虫剂产生不利影响的一种方法。因此，我们研究了两种可能在美国玉米带上提供害虫控制服务的蝙蝠物种的饮食：东部红蝙蝠 (Lasiurus borealis) 和大棕蝙蝠 (Eptesicus fuscus)。我们还表明，引物选择可以影响检测到的分类群的多样性，引物设计中的最新进展可以改善饮食检测研究。使用新的 ANML 引物分离粪便中的猎物 DNA，我们发现两种蝙蝠物种的饮食比以前报道的更多样化。大棕色蝙蝠平均消耗 8.5 个属的 16.2 个物种。红蝙蝠平均消耗 15.8 个属的 28.6 个物种。我们在 92% 的大棕蝙蝠样本和 94% 的红蝙蝠样本中发现了害虫属。对于这两种蝙蝠物种，每个样本中都检测到大约两个害虫属。玉米根虫 (Diabrotica)、三叶草 (Hypena)、植物臭虫 (Lygus)、线虫 (Melanotus)、玉米种子甲虫 (Stenolophus) 和粘虫 (Spodoptera) 是最常食用的农业害虫。我们证实了早期的研究，这些研究将甲虫（鞘翅目）和飞蛾（鳞翅目）分别作为棕色和红色大蝙蝠最常见的猎物。然而，我们还记录了两种蝙蝠物种的多样化饮食，其中包括许多真正的昆虫（半翅目）。