Molecular diet studies of water mites reveal prey biodiversity

Less common still among these specimens are sequences from other taxa, including ostra- cods, amoeba and the cladoceran Diaphanasoma sp., (97.6% identity) which was present in the Lebertia davidcooki in Fig 3, whilst the cladoceran Chydorus brevilabris was observed in Leber- tia quinquemaculosa in Fig 6D. Fig 5B includes the amoeba Alocodera, 87.9% identity. Fig 6B includes Podocopida sp. (95% identity), which was present in seven specimens of L. davidcooki and both specimens of Arrenurus. Relative abundances of the various taxa Each branch of the above trees represents an OTU that was observed in 4 or more specimens; however, a better indication of the relative abundance of specific OTUs in the mite diet is the cluster-sizes (number of sequences) of each OTU. In Fig 6, cluster sizes of OTUs with identical “best hit” reference taxon were summed and represented by each slice of the illustrated pie charts, thereby indicating the relative abundance of various taxa. Thus, while the tree in Fig 3 Table 3. Best reference genera matches to chironomid DNA found in the mite genus Lebertia. Chironomid genus L. quinquemaculosa� (out of 20 specimens) L. davidcooki� (out of 29 specimens) Chironomus SG SGF Cricotopus SG SG Cryptochironomus S SG Dicrotendipes SG SG Orthocladius SG Paratanytarsus SG SG Psectrocladius S SG Tanytarsus S Coelotanypus S Glyptotendipes G GF Kiefferulus F F Parachironomus SG Paracladopelma GF Phaenopsectra S Rheotanytarsus S Rietha F

�Shown only for sequence clusters (OTUs) accounting for >0.1% of non-mite DNA sequences. Key to abbreviations: S, >96.5% identity; G, 90% to 96.5% identity; F, 80 to 90% identity to “best hit” GenBank reference sequences. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254598.t003 Table 4. Best reference gene matches to oligochaete DNA found in the mite genus Lebertia. Oligochaete genus L. quinquemaculosa� (out of 20 specimens) L. davidcooki� (out of 29 specimens) Amphichaeta G GF Chaetogaster SGF F Stylaria F F Nais SG G Piguetiella F Slavina F Amynthas F �Shown only for sequence clusters accounting for >0.1% of non-mite DNA sequences. Key to abbreviations: S, >96.5% identity; G, 90% to 96. 5% identity; F, 80 to 90% identity to “best hit” GenBank reference sequences. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254598.t004 PLOS ONE Prey DNA diversity in water mites PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254598 July 29, 2021 10 / 18