title: Chirosurveillance: The use of native bats to detect invasive agricultural pests.
abstract: Invasive insect pests cost the agricultural industry billions of dollars annually in crop losses. Timely detection of pests is critical for management efficiency. Innovative pest detection strategies, such as environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques, combined with efficient predators, maximize sampling resolution across space and time and may improve surveillance. We tested the hypothesis that temperate insectivorous bats can be important sentinels of agricultural insect pest surveillance. Specifically, we used a new high-sensitivity molecular assay for invasive brown marmorated stink bugs (Halyomorpha halys) to examine the extent to which big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) detect agricultural pests in the landscape. We documented consistent seasonal predation of stink bugs by big brown bats. Importantly, bats detected brown marmorated stink bugs 3-4 weeks earlier than the current standard monitoring tool, blacklight traps, across all sites. We highlight here the previously unrecognized potential ecosystem service of bats as agents of pest surveillance (or chirosurveillance). Additional studies examining interactions between other bat and insect pest species, coupled with comparisons of detectability among various conventional monitoring methods, are needed to verify the patterns extracted from this study. Ultimately, robust economic analyses will be needed to assess the cost-effectiveness of chirosurveillance as a standard strategy for integrated pest management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America.|Rutgers Cooperative Extension, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America.
authors.forename: Brooke
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Maslo
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Valentin
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Leu
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kerwin
authors.affiliation: Rutgers Cooperative Extension, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America.|Department of Entomology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America.
authors.forename: George C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bevan
authors.affiliation: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States of America.
authors.forename: Nina H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Fefferman
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America.|Rutgers Cooperative Extension, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America.|Department of Entomology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States of America.
authors.forename: Dina M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Fonseca
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000502:physiology*; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000469:parasitology; D017753:Ecosystem; D020062:Heteroptera / Q000502:physiology*; D007300:Insect Control / Q000379:methods*; D058865:Introduced Species; D010572:Pest Control, Biological / Q000379:methods*; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors