Evaluating the potential of molecular dietary analysis of predators for the detection of emerging plant pests - Dataset

Systematic review methods A systematic review of the literature was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Pre-defined search terms were queried against recognised literature databases to identify literature concerning the application of molecular methods to the analysis of pests in the diets of predators. The following search string was queried against Scopus in April 2025: (metabarcod* OR metagenomi* OR "molecular diagnosti*" OR lamp OR ddpcr OR "molecular diet*" OR "diagnostic PCR") AND (predato* OR predation OR biocontrol OR "biological control" OR omnivor* OR prey OR invert* OR insect*) AND (tree OR fores* OR woodland OR *forest). This search returned 667 articles. To minimise selection bias and ensure systematic evaluation, the project team was divided into two independent review teams, each containing expertise in molecular ecology, trophic ecology, and biomonitoring. Both teams conducted parallel screening at each stage of review, with consensus meetings held to resolve discrepancies before advancing to the next stage. Of the initial 667 articles, 612 were removed when screening titles and abstracts for article relevance and a further 10 were removed due to irrelevance during data extraction, leaving 45 studies for the final synthesis (Figure 1). Each study was screened for predator species, geographic location and habitat context, pest species detected, capture and sampling methods, molecular methods (DNA extraction, PCR primers, sequencing platform) and reference databases used. Three files are provided: Systematic review sheets.xlsx - This file contains the final extracted data, alongside the initial search terms used, the initial search return and the intermediary steps taken by both review teams. PHC_sys_rev.csv - This file contains just the extracted data, tidied and formatted for plotting and summarisation in R. Sys review data vis.R - This R script contains the scripts used to visualise the data extracted from the reviewed papers.