Puke or poop? Comparison of regurgitate and faecal samples to infer alpine grasshopper ( Paprides nitidus Hutton) diet in experimental plant communities

Ecology and Evolution · 4 authors, 5 centres

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TL;DR

This methodological study compared regurgitate and faecal samples from alpine grasshoppers to determine which sample type provides better molecular evidence of diet.

Full summary

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Plant DNA amplification success was higher from faecal than regurgitate samples for both sexes. Limitations include the inability to determine the mechanisms for differences in amplification success and the relatively low overall amplification success rate of 66%.

STUDY TYPE

other

SPECIALTY

animal science

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AI pipeline

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ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10463123

Puke or poop? Comparison of regurgitate and faecal samples to infer alpine grasshopper ( Paprides nitidus Hutton) diet in experimental plant communities

Ecology and Evolution

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ABSTRACT

Abstract Characterising plant‐herbivore interactions is important to understanding the processes that influence community structure and ecosystem functioning. Traditional methods used to identify plant‐herbivore interactions are being superseded by non‐destructive molecular approaches that can infer interactions with greater resolution and accuracy from environmental DNA (e.g. faeces and regurgitate). However, few studies have compared the success of using different sample types and whether they provide similar or contrasting information about species' diet. Here we compared the success of DNA amplification and host plant species identification using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) applied to faecal and regurgitate samples collected from alpine grasshoppers Paprides nitidus Hutton during a grassland community mesocosm experiment. We found that DNA amplification success was 23% and 86% higher for faecal than regurgitate samples from female and male grasshoppers, respectively. In contrast, successful host plant identification using RFLP was 9% higher for regurgitate than faecal samples. The mean number of host plant species identified per sample (1.40) did not differ between sample types or grasshopper sexes. Of the 136 paired faecal‐regurgitate samples, just 41% and 74% produced exactly or partially matching host plant identifications, respectively, indicating that different sample types provided complementary information about herbivore diet. Some plant species were more likely to be identified from faecal samples than expected by chance, and we found that this identification bias skewed towards plant species with higher investment in leaf tissue. We conclude that multiple sample types may be required to fully characterise an invertebrate herbivore species' diet. Keywords: eDNA, environmental DNA, frass, plant‐herbivore interactions, restriction fragment length polymorphism, RFLP

CITATION EXPORT

Warwick J Allen, Lauren P Waller, Barbara I P Barratt et al.. Puke or poop? Comparison of regurgitate and faecal samples to infer alpine grasshopper (Paprides nitidus Hutton) diet in experimental plant communities. Ecology and Evolution. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10444

AUTHORS

4 · 5 CENTRES

Warwick J Allen, Lauren P Waller, Barbara I P Barratt, Ian A Dickie

1 Bio‐Protection Research Centre, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
2 Bioprotection Aotearoa, Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand
3 AgResearch, Invermay Research Centre, Mosgiel, New Zealand
4 Department of Botany, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
5 Present address: Manaaki Whenua ‐ Landcare Research 76 Gerald Street Lincoln 7608 New Zealand