Identification of sawflies and horntails (Hymenoptera, ‘Symphyta’) through DNA barcodes: successes and caveats |
| |
| Authors: | Stefan Schmidt Andreas Taeger Jérôme Morinière Andrew Liston Stephan M Blank Katja Kramp Manfred Kraus Olga Schmidt Erik Heibo Marko Prous Tommi Nyman Tobias Malm Julie Stahlhut |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. SNSB‐Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Munich, Germany;2. Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, Müncheberg, Germany;3. Manfred Kraus, Nürnberg, Germany;4. Erik Heibo, Lierskogen, Norway;5. Department of Zoology, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia;6. Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland;7. Department of Zoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden;8. Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada |
| |
| Abstract: | The ‘Symphyta’ is a paraphyletic assemblage at the base of the order Hymenoptera, comprising 14 families and about 8750 species. All have phytophagous larvae, except for the Orussidae, which are parasitoids. This study presents and evaluates the results of DNA barcoding of approximately 5360 specimens of ‘Symphyta’, mainly adults, and 4362 sequences covering 1037 species were deemed of suitable quality for inclusion in the analysis. All extant families are represented, except for the Anaxyelidae. The majority of species and specimens are from Europe, but approximately 38% of the species and 13% of the specimens are of non‐European origin. The utility of barcoding for species identification and taxonomy of ‘Symphyta’ is discussed on the basis of examples from each of the included families. A significant level of cryptic species diversity was apparent in many groups. Other attractive applications include the identification of immature stages without the need to rear them, community analyses based on metabarcoding of bulk samples and association of the sexes of adults. |
| |
| Keywords: | DNA barcoding horntails Insects morphology sawflies taxonomy |
|
|
