Can environmental DNA be used within pest insect agricultural biosecurity? Detecting khapra beetle within stored rice

We developed an eDNA method — washing and filtering stored rice, then screening with qPCR — to detect khapra beetle, one of the world’s most damaging stored-product pests. The method detected a single larva within a 50 kg container of rice with 85–97%+ certainty, depending on the number of qPCR replicates run.

Using surface environmental DNA to assess arthropod biodiversity within a forested ecosystem

We collected environmental DNA from tree bark and understory foliage at 40 sites in a New Jersey forest and, using two metabarcoding primer sets, recovered over 1,000 arthropod molecular operational taxonomic units spanning 292 identified species, 181 families, and 28 orders — proof-of-concept that surface eDNA can survey terrestrial arthropod communities.