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Eur. J. Entomol. 2010, 107(2): 147156
DNA barcoding is of limited value for identifying adelgids (Hemiptera: Adelgidae) but supports traditional morphological taxonomy
ZUROVCOVA M.*, HAVELKA J., STARY P., VECHTOVA P., CHUNDELOVA D., JAROSOVA A. & KUCEROVA L.
The sequence diversity in the mitochondrial cytochrome-c oxidase I (COI) gene was evaluated as a tool for resolving differences among species of European adelgids collected from several localities across the Czech Republic. Members of 7 genera and 16 species were examined, and as outgroups, two species of Phylloxeridae were used. Sequence divergences within species were on average less than 0.15%, whereas divergences between species ranged from 0.0 to 4.12% for congeneric and to 13.24% for intergeneric comparisons. It is concluded that DNA barcoding of Adelgidae is a powerful tool for identifying genera, but at the species level it works only in those cases where there are no species complexes. Nevertheless, it can be used as a complement to traditional, morphological taxonomy.
AddressBiology Centre ASCR, Institute of Entomology, Branisovska 31, CZ-37005 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic; e-mail: martina@entu.cas.cz
KeywordsAdelgidae, aphids, species identification, systematics, DNA barcoding
