No guts, no glory: Gut content metabarcoding unveils the diet of a flower‐associated coastal sage scrub predator

摘要: Invertebrate generalist predators are ubiquitous and play a major role in food‐web dynamics. Molecular gut content analysis (MGCA) has become popular means to assess prey ranges specificity of cryptic arthropods the absence direct observation. While this approach been widely used study predation on economically important taxa (i.e., pests) agroecosystems, it is less frequently broader trophic interactions involving natural communities such as diverse threatened coastal sage scrub Southern California. Here, we employ DNA metabarcoding‐based MGCA survey taxonomically ecologically range Phymata pacifica Evans, flower‐associated ambush bug (Hemiptera: Reduviidae). We detected wide array including beneficial pollinators, potential pests, other predatory arthropods. The success demonstrates utility ecosystems can serve model for future diet investigations into underrepresented communities.