Table 1. Sampling depth and number of taxa at OTU level (at 97% identity), at genus level and phylum level by 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing from the various life stages of N. arborum. For eggs, L2 larvae and workers, the numbers of taxa are based on a sub-sample of 1367 reads.

	Eggs	L1 larvae	L2 Larvae	Workers	Total
Sampling depth
Quality filtered reads	5990	3678	7172	1470	18310
Non-Wolbachia reads	1367	50	3371	1458	6246
Taxonomic composition
Number of phylum-level taxa	7	7*	13	17	18**
Number of genus-level taxa	58	19*	93	97	178
Number of unique OTUs (97% identity)	72	24*	297	357	687**

*For L1 larvae, they are based on 50 sequences excluding Wolbachia. They are given for illustration only and are not included in the total for the taxonomic composition, which refers to unique taxa.

** For the taxonomic composition, the total number of taxa at the phylum, genus and OTU levels is the sum of the individual taxa from the three pyrotag libraries, taking account of the taxa common to different stages.