Tuta absoluta-Specific DNA in Domestic and Synanthropic Vertebrate Insectivore Feces

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta, is one of the most harmful pests to greenhouse tomato crops in the Mediterranean. The biological control of this pest is based on parasitoid and predator insects. However, it may be worthwhile to measure whether the pest is part of the diet of domestic and synanthropic vertebrates like birds, bats, and lizards. We carried out our research in Southern Spain, an area well-known for its extensive tomato farming. TaqMan real-time PCR was used to find T. absoluta in domestic and synanthropic vertebrate feces. The efficiencies of three different DNA extraction methods were also compared. Our research demonstrates that in addition to domestic birds, bats, lizards, and insectivorous birds also consume T. absoluta and may offer an ecosystem service that merits further study. ABSTRACT: The ecology of greenhouse pests generally involves parasitoid or predatory insects. However, we investigated whether the leaf miner Tuta absoluta (Meyrick, 1917) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is part of the diet of domestic and synanthropic vertebrate animals, such as birds, reptiles, and mammals, and that take part in an ecosystem that contains a high density of tomato greenhouses. Feces from domesticated partridges, common quails, and chickens, as well as from wild lizards were collected within tomato greenhouses, and fecal pellets from bats, swallows, common swifts, and house martins living in the vicinity of tomato greenhouses were collected outside. The efficiencies of three different DNA extraction methods were compared on bird, reptile, and mammal stool samples, and the DNA extracts were analyzed using probe real-time PCR for the presence of T. absoluta DNA. The results showed that bats fed on the pest, which was also part of the diet of several bird species: partridges and common quails kept within tomato greenhouses and swallows and common swifts living outside but in the vicinity of tomato greenhouses. In addition, fecal samples of three lizard species living near tomato crops also tested positive for T. absoluta DNA. The results suggest that aerial foraging bats and insectivorous birds are part of ecosystems that involve leaf miners and tomato greenhouses.