Native versus introduced prey items
BLAST matches were low for most ASVs, resulting in lack of confident
identification. Because of this, only 53 of 164 ASVs were identifiable
as native versus non-native prey taxa. Therefore, most ASVs in the diets
of spiders in ginger or native forest were not assigned an endemism
status. With those that were identifiable, we find more non-native prey
ASVs in ginger forest than in native forest (Figure 6). Additionally, we
find less identifiable ASVs in spiders collected from native forest.
Because widely spread introduced taxa are usually well-studied, the
fewer identifiable sequences found in spiders in native forest could
indicate more native prey taxa not yet sequenced.
Looking at the diets of individual spiders, we find that more spiders in
ginger-invaded habitat are consuming diets consisting entirely of
non-native prey than diets consisting of native prey (Figure 7).
Moreover, the prey orders not found in high abundance in native forest
but eaten commonly in ginger are largely non-native. In particular, all
Entomobryomorpha detected in the diets of spiders are non-native.
Spiders in ginger were additionally eating more non-native hemipterans
than the spiders in native forest. More unidentifiable sequences were
detected in native forest; the prey status in the diets of 33 of the 58
spiders from native forest were unknown. This could relate to lack of
presence in GenBank and indicate higher concentration of native prey
taxa, while adventive or introduced taxa are more well-represented
resulting in a higher level of ASV identification in ginger sites.