Dietary histories of mass-dispersing spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae), in the Mid-Atlantic

The invasive spotted lanternfly (SLF), Lycorma delicatula, has recently emerged as a serious landscape-level agricultural and forest pest in the Northeastern United States. Annual dispersal events occur each fall in which large numbers of adults take flight and travel significant distances en masse. While such mass-dispersal flights likely play a major role in the expansion of SLF’s invaded range, the drivers of this behavior are poorly understood. Here we examine the dietary histories of dispersing SLF using high-throughput sequencing to determine which host plants act as sources of migrating insects. Wild SLF were collected from several locations in Winchester, VA during the Sep-Oct 2021 mass-dispersal event. Host plant DNA was extracted and the trnF and ITS gene regions amplified from insect guts using PCR; products were sequenced on the PacBio high-throughput sequencing platform. Our results improve our understanding of late-season host plant use by SLF and the role of diet in SLF migration.