Icon Legend

This session is not in your schedule.

This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Oral Presentation

Poster Display

Student Competition

Ticketed Event

13 Views

Section Symposium

Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

eDNA as a Tool for Inferring Insect Species Presence and Characterizing Communities

Development and validation of an eDNA assay for detection of the endangered Franklin's bumble bee (Bombus franklini)

Tuesday, November 11, 2025

8:20 AM - 8:35 AM Pacific

Location: Oregon Convention Center, Portland Ballroom 251, OCC

Presenting Author(s)

MG

Michaela R. Grossklaus

U.S. Geological Survey
Boise, Idaho

Co-Author(s)

DP

David S. Pilliod

U.S. Geological Survey
Boise, Idaho
ML

Matthew Laramie

U.S. Geological Survey, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center
YL

Yer Lor

U.S. Geological Survey, Upper Midwest Environmental Science Center
MK

Marissa Kaminski

U.S. Geological Survey
LaCrosse, Wisconsin
SS

Stephen Spear

U.S. Geological Survey, Upper Midwest Environmental Science Center
Jeff Everett

Fish and Wildlife Biologist
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Portland, Oregon

Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling is a nonlethal alternative to conventional methods of surveying insects. eDNA sampling may be particularly useful for detecting pollinators, as many pollinators leave DNA behind on the flowers they visit. We developed a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay to detect the DNA of Franklin’s bumble bee (Bombus franklini) from flower samples and conducted an initial test of the assay using field samples collected within and around the historic range of the species. We further analyzed all samples using metabarcoding. Our assay successfully amplified B. franklini DNA and exhibited no cross-reactivity with nontarget bee DNA during in-silico and in-vitro testing. Preliminary results indicate that we did not detect B. franklini DNA from field-collected flower samples. However, metabarcoding analysis revealed DNA of many other bumble bee species. This finding underscores the potential utility of eDNA sampling for surveying bumble bees. Nondetection of B. franklini from field samples may be an artifact of the extreme rarity of the species; B. franklini is endangered and has not been observed in the wild since 2006. Our B. franklini assay is the first bee-specific qPCR assay ever developed and sets the stage for additional assays that may improve detection rates of rare and endangered bees.