All organisms leave behind a trail of shed DNA in the environment. Such environmental DNA (eDNA) has proven a powerful and convenient way to sample for aquatic organisms, but efforts to move eDNA onto land are increasingly gaining steam (e.g., see here). Terrestrial animals like insects also leave behind a DNA trail on vegetation, especially sap-sucking insects like the invasive Spotted Lanternfly (pictured above top-middle on a grape vine).

How easy is insect DNA to detect on foliage? Can it be useful for monitoring? How long does it last on vegetation? The answers to these questions are “very!”, “yes!”, and “about 1 week!”. We recently published 2 open access papers on the topic related to invasive insects in the journal Environmental DNA. These describe: 1) a head-to-head comparison in which we show eDNA surveys outperform visual surveys for Spotted Lanternfly in vineyards; and 2) a series of experiments showing Brown-marmorated Stink Bug DNA can persist on foliage in a detectable form for >1 week in the absence of rainfall.

The Spotted Lanternfly paper: http://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.2

Stinkbug DNA degradation paper: http://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.229