A metabarcoding tool to detect predation of the honeybee Apis mellifera and other wild insects by the invasive Vespa velutina     

Verdasca  Maria João  Godinho  Raquel  Rocha  Rita Gomes  Portocarrero  Marco  Carvalheiro  Luísa Gigante  Rebelo  Rui  Rebelo  Hugo 《Journal of pest science》2022,95(2):997-1007

The invasive Vespa velutina has been widely referred as an effective predator of honeybees. Despite the potential risk to pollination services provision and honey production, there is no accurate quantification and assessment of its real consequences for honeybees. To date, the identification of the honeybee and other insects in the diet of V. velutina has been investigated by direct observation of adult foraging or examination of food pellets. To overcome these limitations, in this study we used a DNA metabarcoding approach to evaluate the usefulness of different types of sample (jaws and stomachs collected from workers and larval faecal pellets taken from the hornet comb) to investigate the predation of V. velutina upon honeybees, and potentially on other insects. Honeybee DNA was identified in all types of samples, but larval faecal pellets retrieved the higher number of reads of honeybee DNA and the largest diversity at all taxonomic levels. Over all samples we could identify 4 orders, 9 families, 6 genera and 1 species of prey. We estimate that collecting 6 workers is sufficient to identify honeybee predation by a colony using worker’s jaws. Stomachs were the least useful sample type to detect honeybee DNA. The presence of honeybee DNA in all analysed colonies irrespective of collection site, and the variety of insect orders detected in the diet support current concerns over the acknowledged negative impact of V. velutina on managed honeybees and its potential threat to pollination services provision.

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Pedology-based management class establishment: a study case in Brazilian coffee crops     

Gonçalves  Mariana Gabriele Marcolino  Avalos  Fabio Arnaldo Pomar  dos Reis  Josimar Vieira  Costa  Milton Verdade  Silva  Sérgio Henrique Godinho  Poggere  Giovana Clarice  Curi  Nilton  de Menezes  Michele Duarte 《Precision Agriculture》2022,23(3):1027-1050

Precision Agriculture - This work proposes an approach for establishing coffee management classes mainly supported by pedological information (soil survey) and land parcels, taking into account...  相似文献