Insect sampling
We collected bulk arthropods (sandflies, mosquitos, and carrion flies)
in a coordinated effort at 39 fragmented forest sites of varying size,
shape, and degree of fragmentation from April – September in 2015 and
2016 (Fig. 1). At each site, we built a grid of three parallel 200 m
transects with each transect approximately 50 m apart (see Appendix S1:
Fig. S1 for trapping grid layout). Along each transect, we placed nine
UV LED CDC light traps (BioQuip; Catalog Number: 2770) with
approximately 30 m between traps for 27 total light traps per site. We
also set three homemade carrion fly traps at each grid in a triangular
arrangement with one trap at the end of the first transect, one at the
beginning of the second transect, and the final trap at the end of the
third transect (Appendix S1: Fig. S1). We engineered each carrion fly
trap from two 2 L soda bottles and gauze mesh. The trap was designed to
bait carrion flies with the smell of rotting meat while also keeping the
trapped carrion flies separated from the bait (see Appendix S1: Fig. S2
for carrion fly trap design). We trapped and collected the insects over
the course of 4 days and 3 trap nights at each site. We checked traps
each day and collected the collection cups containing the live insects
(and replaced this with a new collection cup) every 24 hours; we placed
the collection cups containing the live insects in a portable
refrigerator during transportation to Universidade Federal de Mato
Grosso (UFMT, Sinop campus) lab facilities. We immediately transferred
insect collections to a -20°C freezer for at least 30 minutes to stun
the insects in order to then separate out sandflies and mosquitos from
other insect by-catch. We sorted sandflies, mosquitos, and carrion flies
into separate pools based on site and date into 2 mL microtubes. Because
of differences in body size and weight, sandflies were pooled at 50
individuals, mosquitos were pooled at fifteen individuals, and carrion
flies were pooled at five individuals. Finally, we placed sorted insects
into a -80°C freezer until they were shipped using dry ice to our home
lab facility at Oregon State University where they were once again
frozen at -80°C until molecular processing.