Host-Specific Spatial and Temporal Variation in Culturable Gut Bacterial Communities of Dragonflies

Many microbial communities are associated with specific animal hosts, with major impacts on the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of both partners. We analysed gut microbial communities of eight dragonfly species in southern India. Adult dragonflies are generalist opportunistic predators; thus, we expected to find relatively high individual variation but low host-specific variation in their gut community composition. However, we find that each host species has a distinct gut bacterial community, with sampling location and month playing a small but significant role in shaping community structure. These patterns suggest that dragonflies either specialize on subsets of available prey, or their guts impose differential selective pressures resulting in distinct communities.