Raw sequence of: Field investigation- and dietary metabarcoding-based screening of arthropods that prey on primary tea pests

Predatory natural enemies play key functional roles in biological control. Abundant predatory arthropod species have been recorded in tea plantation ecosystems. However, few studies have comprehensively evaluated the control effect of predatory arthropods on tea pests in the field. We performed a one-year field investigation and collected predatory arthropods and pests in the tea canopy. Total 7,931 predatory arthropod individuals were collected, and Coleosoma blandum (Araneae, Theridiidae) was the most abundant species in the studied tea plantation. The population dynamics between C. blandum and four main tea pest species (Aleurocanthus spiniferus, Empoasca onukii, Ectropis grisescens and Scopula subpunctaria) were established using the individual number of predators and pests in each month. The results showed that the occurrence of C. blandum showed high synchronism with the occurrence of A. spiniferus, Em. onukii and Ec. grisescens. The prey spectrum of C. blandum was further analyzed using DNA metabarcoding. Among prey species, A. spiniferus, Em. onukii and Ec. grisescens were included, and the relative abundance and positive rates of target DNA fragments of A. spiniferus were obviously greater than those of other two pests.

捕食性天敌在生物防治中发挥着关键的功能作用。茶园生态系统中已记录有丰富的捕食性节肢动物物种。然而，目前鲜有研究在田间层面全面评估捕食性节肢动物对茶园害虫的控害效果。本研究开展了为期一年的田间调查，采集了茶冠层中的捕食性节肢动物与害虫样本。共采集到7931头捕食性节肢动物个体，其中扁腹丽蛛（Coleosoma blandum，蜘蛛目Araneae、球蛛科Theridiidae）为受试茶园中的优势物种。基于每月采集到的捕食者与害虫个体数量，构建了扁腹丽蛛与4种主要茶园害虫（黑刺粉虱Aleurocanthus spiniferus、假眼小绿叶蝉Empoasca onukii、灰茶尺蛾Ectropis grisescens以及洁翅尺蛾Scopula subpunctaria）的种群动态关系。结果显示，扁腹丽蛛的发生动态与黑刺粉虱、假眼小绿叶蝉及灰茶尺蛾的发生动态具有较高的同步性。本研究进一步通过DNA元条形码技术（DNA metabarcoding）分析了扁腹丽蛛的猎物谱。在检测到的猎物物种中，包含黑刺粉虱、假眼小绿叶蝉与灰茶尺蛾，且黑刺粉虱的目标DNA片段相对丰度与阳性检出率均显著高于另外两种害虫。