List of agricultural pests and disease vectors detected in the diet of insectivorous bats in northern Madagascar

This table is part of the PhD thesis of Carme Tuneu-Corral, entitled 'Bats and rice: promoting Integrated Pest Management to enhance biodiversity conservation'. It is the Table A4.3 of the supplementary material of the Chapter 5 'Beyond borders: evaluating the role of protected areas in promoting bat-mediated pest suppression in rural areas of northern Madagascar', and shows the list of agricultural pests (known and potential) and disease vectors detected in the diet of insectivorous bats, BOLD ID percentage (similarity), and information on the type of crops attacked or disease transmitted by them in Madagascar and/or continental Africa.

Methodology:

To evaluate whether bats were consuming agricultural pests or disease vectors, we only considered prey identified to species level. Using published scientific literature, we classified each arthropod species in one of the following categories: ‘non-pest prey’, ‘known human-disease vector’ (species confirmed as human-disease vector in Madagascar), ‘known livestock-disease vector’ (species confirmed as livestock-disease vector in Madagascar), ‘potential human-disease vector’ (species not confirmed as human-disease vector in Madagascar, but considered as such in continental Africa), ‘potential livestock-disease vector’ (species not confirmed as livestock-disease vector in Madagascar, but considered as such in continental Africa), ‘known agricultural pest’ (species confirmed as agricultural pest in Madagascar), ‘potential agricultural pest’ (species not confirmed as agricultural pest in Madagascar, but considered as such in continental Africa).