A metabarcoding exploration of ecological interactions among hoverflies, spontaneous vegetation and aphids in apple orchards

Abstract: Interaction of hoverfly with plant and aphid taxa were explored in two apple orchards to identify hoverfly trophic preferences based on a metabarcoding analysis. Only four hoverfly taxa (among the thirteen taxa observed in the apple orchards) were directly involved in Dysaphis plantaginae biological control. On average 16 plant taxa were detected per hoverfly taxa. Hoverfly taxa hardly differed in their plant distribution.