Dataset: Floral presence and flower identity alter cereal aphid endosymbiont communities on adjacent crops

Floral plantings adjacent to crop fields can recruit populations of natural enemies by providing flower nectar and non-crop prey to increase natural pest regulation. Observed variation in success rates might be due to changes in the unseen community of endosymbionts hosted by many herbivorous insects, of which some can confer resistance to natural enemies, e.g. parasitoid wasps. Reduced insect control may occur if highly protective symbiont combinations increase in frequency via selection effects, and this is expected to be stronger in lower diversity systems.
We used a large-scale field trial to analyse the bacterial endosymbiont communities hosted by cereal aphids (Sitobion avenae) collected along transects into strip plots of barley plants managed by either conventional or integrated (including floral field margins and reduced inputs) methods. In addition, we conducted an outdoor pot experiment to analyse endosymbionts in S. avenae aphids collected on barley plants that were either ...