DNA barcoding as a screening tool for cryptic diversity: an example from Caryocolum, with description of a new species (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae)

Underestimated cryptic diversity in the Caryocolumtricolorella species complex (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae)

The taxonomy of the Caryocolumtricolorella species complex, an informal subsection of the diverse Caryocoluminteralbicella species group, is revised and four species are separated from DNA barcodes of the mitochondrial COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1) gene and adult morphology: C.tricolorella (Haworth, 1812), C.fibigerium Huemer, 1988, C.herwigvanstaai sp. nov., and C.olekarsholti sp. nov. These species show a vicariant distribution pattern, with C.tricolorella widely distributed in Central and Northern Europe, C.fibigerium restricted to the Iberian Peninsula and southern France, C.herwigvanstaai sp. nov. to the Italian Peninsula, and C.olekarsholti sp. nov. to the Balkans. All species are described in detail, and the adults and genitalia of both sexes are illustrated.

DNA barcoding of Oryza: conventional, specific, and super barcodes

We applied the phylogenomics to clarify the concept of rice species, aid in the identification and use of rice germplasms, and support rice biodiversity. Rice (genus Oryza) is one of the most important crops in the world, supporting half of the world's population. Breeding of high-yielding and quality cultivars relies on genetic resources from both cultivated and wild species, which are collected and maintained in seed banks. Unfortunately, numerous seeds are mislabeled due to taxonomic issues or misidentifications. Here, we applied the phylogenomics of 58 complete chloroplast genomes and two hypervariable nuclear genes to determine species identity in rice seeds. Twenty-one Oryza species were identified. Conspecific relationships were determined between O. glaberrima and O. barthii, O. glumipatula and O. longistaminata, O. grandiglumis and O. alta, O. meyeriana and O. granulata, O. minuta and O. malampuzhaensis, O. nivara and O. sativa subsp. indica, and O. sativa subsp. japonica and O. rufipogon. D and L genome types were not found and the H genome type was extinct. Importantly, we evaluated the performance of four conventional plant DNA barcodes (matK, rbcL, psbA-trnH, and ITS), six rice-specific chloroplast DNA barcodes (psaJ-rpl33, trnC-rpoB, rps16-trnQ, rpl22-rps19, trnK-matK, and ndhC-trnV), two rice-specific nuclear DNA barcodes (NP78 and R22), and a chloroplast genome super DNA barcode. The latter was the most reliable marker. The six rice-specific chloroplast barcodes revealed that 17% of the 53 seed accessions from rice seed banks or field collections were mislabeled. These results are expected to clarify the concept of rice species, aid in the identification and use of rice germplasms, and support rice biodiversity.

DNA barcode library for European Gelechiidae (Lepidoptera) suggests greatly underestimated species diversity

For the first time, a nearly complete barcode library for European Gelechiidae is provided. DNA barcode sequences (COI gene – cytochrome c oxidase 1) from 751 out of 865 nominal species, belonging to 105 genera, were successfully recovered. A total of 741 species represented by specimens with sequences ≥ 500bp and an additional ten species represented by specimens with shorter sequences were used to produce 53 NJ trees. Intraspecific barcode divergence averaged only 0.54% whereas distance to the Nearest-Neighbour species averaged 5.58%. Of these, 710 species possessed unique DNA barcodes, but 31 species could not be reliably discriminated because of barcode sharing or partial barcode overlap. Species discrimination based on the Barcode Index System (BIN) was successful for 668 out of 723 species which clustered from minimum one to maximum 22 unique BINs. Fifty-five species shared a BIN with up to four species and identification from DNA barcode data is uncertain. Finally, 65 clusters with a unique BIN remained unidentified to species level. These putative taxa, as well as 114 nominal species with more than one BIN, suggest the presence of considerable cryptic diversity, cases which should be examined in future revisionary studies.

Commented checklist of European Gelechiidae (Lepidoptera)

The checklist of European Gelechiidae covers 865 species, belonging to 109 genera, with three species records which require confirmation. Further, it is the first checklist to include a complete coverage of proved synonyms of species and at generic level. The following taxonomic changes are introduced: Pseudosophronia constanti (Nel, 1998) syn. nov. of Pseudosophronia exustellus (Zeller, 1847), Metzneria expositoi Vives, 2001 syn. nov. of Metzneria aestivella (Zeller, 1839); Sophronia ascalis Gozmány, 1951 syn. nov. of Sophronia grandii Hering, 1933, Aproaerema incognitana (Gozmány, 1957) comb. nov., Aproaerema cinctelloides (Nel & Varenne, 2012) comb. nov., Aproaerema azosterella (Herrich-Schäffer, 1854) comb. nov., Aproaerema montanata (Gozmány, 1957) comb. nov., Aproaerema cincticulella (Bruand, 1851) comb. nov., Aproaerema buvati (Nel, 1995) comb. nov., Aproaerema linella (Chrétien, 1904) comb. nov., Aproaerema captivella (Herrich-Schäffer, 1854) comb. nov., Aproaerema semicostella (Staudinger, 1871) comb. nov., Aproaerema steppicola (Junnilainen, 2010) comb. nov., Aproaerema cottienella (Nel, 2012) comb. nov., Ptocheuusa cinerella (Chrétien, 1908) comb. nov., Pragmatodes melagonella (Constant, 1895) comb. nov., Pragmatodes albagonella (Varenne & Nel, 2010) comb. nov., Pragmatodes parvulata (Gozmány, 1953) comb. nov., Oxypteryx nigromaculella (Millière, 1872) comb. nov., Oxypteryx wilkella (Linnaeus, 1758) comb. nov., Oxypteryx ochricapilla (Rebel, 1903) comb. nov., Oxypteryx superbella (Zeller, 1839) comb. nov., Oxypteryx mirusella (Huemer & Karsholt, 2013) comb. nov., Oxypteryx baldizzonei (Karsholt & Huemer, 2013) comb. nov., Oxypteryx occidentella (Huemer & Karsholt, 2011) comb. nov., Oxypteryx libertinella (Zeller, 1872) comb. nov., Oxypteryx gemerensis (Elsner, 2013) comb. nov., Oxypteryx deserta (Piskunov, 1990) comb. nov., Oxypteryx unicolorella (Duponchel, 1843) comb. nov., Oxypteryx nigritella (Zeller, 1847) comb. nov., Oxypteryx plumbella (Heinemann, 1870) comb. nov., Oxypteryx isostacta (Meyrick, 1926) comb. nov., Oxypteryx helotella (Staudinger, 1859) comb. nov., Oxypteryx parahelotella (Nel, 1995) comb. nov., Oxypteryx graecatella (Šumpich & Skyva, 2012) comb. nov.; Aproaerema genistae (Walsingham, 1908) comb. rev., Aproaerema thaumalea (Walsingham, 1905) comb. rev.; Dichomeris neatodes Meyrick, 1923 sp. rev.; Caryocolum horoscopa (Meyrick, 1926) stat. rev.; Ivanauskiella occitanica (Nel & Varenne, 2013) sp. rev.; Apodia martinii Petry, 1911 sp. rev.; Caulastrocecis cryptoxena (Gozmány, 1952) sp. rev. Following Article 23.9.2 ICZN we propose Caryocolum blandella (Douglas, 1852) (Gelechia) nom. protectum and Caryocolum signatella (Eversmann, 1844) (Lita) nom. oblitum.

Testing the Effectiveness of DNA Barcoding for Biodiversity Assessment of Moths from Nigeria

Comprehensive biodiversity assessment of moths in Nigeria rely greatly on accurate species identification. While most of the Nigerian moths are identified effortlessly using their morphological traits, some taxa are morphologically indistinguishable, which makes it difficult for taxon diagnosis. We investigated the efficiency of the DNA barcode, a fragment of the mitochondrial Cytochrome C oxidase subunit I, as a tool for the identification of Nigerian moths. We barcoded 152 individuals comprising 18 morphospecies collected from one of the remaining and threatened rainforest blocks of Nigeria – the Cross River National Park. Phenetic neighbor-joining tree and phylogenetic Maximum Likelihood approach were employed for the molecular-based species identification. Results showed that DNA barcodes enabled species-level identification of most of the individuals collected from the Park. Additionally, DNA barcoding unraveled the presence of at least six potential new and yet undescribed species—Amnemopsyche sp., Arctia sp., Deinypena sp., Hodebertia sp., Otroeda sp., and Palpita sp. The phylogenetic Maximum Likelihood using the combined dataset of all the newly assembled sequences from Nigeria showed that all species formed unique clades. The phylogenetic analyses provided evidence of population divergence in Euchromia lethe, Nyctemera leuconoe, and Deinypena lacista. This study thus illustrates the efficacy of DNA barcoding for species identification and discovery of potential new species, which demonstrates its relevance in biodiversity documentation of Nigerian moths. Future work should, therefore, extend to the creation of an exhaustive DNA barcode reference library comprising all species of moths from Nigeria to have a comprehensive insight on the diversity of moths in the country. Finally, we propose integrated taxonomic methods that would combine morphological, ecological, and molecular data in the identification and diversity studies of moths in Nigeria.

DNA barcoding of Corydalis, the most taxonomically complicated genus of Papaveraceae

The genus Corydalis is recognized as one of the most taxonomically challenging plant taxa. It is mainly distributed in the Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains, a global biodiversity hotspot. To date, no effective solution for species discrimination and taxonomic assignment in Corydalis has been developed. In this study, five nuclear and chloroplast DNA regions, ITS, ITS2, matK, rbcL, and psbA-trnH, were preliminarily assessed based on their ability to discriminate Corydalis to eliminate inefficient regions, and the three regions showing good performance (ITS, ITS2 and matK) were then evaluated in 131 samples representing 28 species of 11 sections of four subgenera in Corydalis using three analytical methods (NJ, ML, MP tree; K2P-distance and BLAST). The results showed that the various approaches exhibit different species identification power and that BLAST shows the best performance among the tested approaches. A comparison of different barcodes indicated that among the single barcodes, ITS (65.2%) exhibited the highest identification success rate and that the combination of ITS + matK (69.6%) provided the highest species resolution among all single barcodes and their combinations. Three Pharmacopoeia-recorded medicinal plants and their materia medica were identified successfully based on the ITS and ITS2 regions. In the phylogenetic analysis, the sections Thalictrifoliae, Sophorocapnos, Racemosae, Aulacostigma, and Corydalis formed well-supported separate lineages. We thus hypothesize that the five sections should be classified as an independent subgenus and that the genus should be divided into three subgenera. In this study, DNA barcoding provided relatively high species discrimination power, indicating that it can be used for species discrimination in this taxonomically complicated genus and as a potential tool for the authentication of materia medica belonging to Corydalis.

Genetic Variation and Differentiation of Hylesia metabus (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae): Moths of Public Health Importance in French Guiana and in Venezuela

Hylesia moths impact human health in South America, inducing epidemic outbreaks of lepidopterism, a puriginous dermatitis caused by the urticating properties of females' abdominal setae. The classification of the Hylesia genus is complex, owing to its high diversity in Amazonia, high intraspecific morphological variance, and lack of interspecific diagnostic traits which may hide cryptic species. Outbreaks of Hylesia metabus have been considered responsible for the intense outbreaks of lepidopterism in Venezuela and French Guiana since the C20, however, little is known about genetic variability throughout the species range, which is instrumental for establishing control strategies on H. metabus. Seven microsatellites and mitochondrial gene markers were analyzed from Hylesia moths collected from two major lepidopterism outbreak South American regions. The mitochondrial gene sequences contained significant genetic variation, revealing a single, widespread, polymorphic species with distinct clusters, possibly corresponding to populations evolving in isolation. The microsatellite markers validated the mitochondrial results, and suggest the presence of three populations: one in Venezuela, and two in French Guiana. All moths sampled during outbreak events in French Guiana were assigned to a single coastal population. The causes and implications of this finding require further research.

A DNA barcode reference library of Neuroptera (Insecta, Neuropterida) from Beijing

Neuroptera (lacewings) is one of the ancient holometabolous insect groups, but some extant species stand as important natural enemies for biological control. As the capital city of China, Beijing has a rich fauna of Neuroptera, previously with 47 species recorded and sorted in 32 genera of seven families. In this study, DNA barcoding based on sequences of COI gene fragments is used to discriminate lacewing species from Beijing. 217 DNA barcode sequences belonging to 49 species were successfully obtained. The COI barcode data worked well for identification of almost all lacewing species herein examined except Pseudomalladaprasinus (Burmeister), in which cryptic species may exist. Twenty species of Neuroptera are newly recorded from Beijing. Besides, Nothochrysinae is first recorded from Beijing. Chrysopidiaciliata (Wesmael) and Drepanepteryxalgida (Erichson) are first recorded from China.

Revision of the genus Megacraspedus Zeller, 1839, a challenging taxonomic tightrope of species delimitation (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae)

The taxonomy of the Palearctic genus Megacraspedus Zeller, 1839 (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae) is revised, based on external morphology, genitalia and DNA barcodes. An integrative taxonomic approach supports the existence of 85 species which are arranged in 24 species groups (disputed taxa from other faunal regions are discussed). Morphology of all species is described and figured in detail. For 35 species both sexes are described; for 46 species only the male sex is reported, in one species the male is unknown, whereas in three species the female adult and/or genitalia morphology could not be analysed due to lack of material. DNA barcode sequences of the COI barcode fragment with > 500 bp were obtained from 264 specimens representing 62 species or about three-quarters of the species. Species delimitation is particularly difficult in a few widely distributed species with high and allegedly intraspecific DNA barcode divergence of nearly 14%, and with up to 23 BINs in a single species. Deep intraspecific or geographical splits in DNA barcode are frequently not supported by morphology, thus indicating a complex phylogeographic history or other unresolved molecular problems. The following 44 new species (22 of them from Europe) are described: Megacraspedusbengtssoni sp. n. (Spain), M.junnilaineni sp. n. (Turkey), M.similellus sp. n. (Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey), M.golestanicus sp. n. (Iran), M.tokari sp. n. (Croatia), M.neli sp. n. (France, Italy), M.faunierensis sp. n. (Italy), M.gredosensis sp. n. (Spain), M.bidentatus sp. n. (Spain), M.fuscus sp. n. (Spain), M.trineae sp. n. (Portugal, Spain), M.skoui sp. n. (Spain), M.spinophallus sp. n. (Spain), M.occidentellus sp. n. (Portugal), M.granadensis sp. n. (Spain), M.heckfordi sp. n. (Spain), M.tenuiuncus sp. n. (France, Spain), M.devorator sp. n. (Bulgaria, Romania), M.brachypteris sp. n. (Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro), M.barcodiellus sp. n. (Macedonia), M.sumpichi sp. n. (Spain), M.tabelli sp. n. (Morocco), M.gallicus sp. n. (France, Spain), M.libycus sp. n. (Libya, Morocco), M.latiuncus sp. n. (Kazahkstan), M.kazakhstanicus sp. n. (Kazahkstan), M.knudlarseni sp. n. (Spain), M.tenuignathos sp. n. (Morocco), M.glaberipalpus sp. n. (Morocco), M.nupponeni sp. n. (Russia), M.pototskii sp. n. (Kyrgyzstan), M.feminensis sp. n. (Kazakhstan), M.kirgizicus sp. n. (Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan), M.ibericus sp. n. (Portugal, Spain), M.steineri sp. n. (Morocco), M.gibeauxi sp. n. (Algeria, Tunisia), M.multipunctellus sp. n. (Turkey), M.teriolensis sp. n. (Croatia, Greece, Italy, Slovenia), M.korabicus sp. n. (Macedonia), M.skulei sp. n. (Spain), M.longivalvellus sp. n. (Morocco), M.peslieri sp. n. (France, Spain), M.pacificus sp. n. (Afghanistan), and M.armatophallus sp. n. (Afghanistan). Nevadia Caradja, 1920, syn. n. (homonym), Cauloecista Dumont, 1928, syn. n., Reichardtiella Filipjev, 1931, syn. n., and Vadenia Caradja, 1933, syn. n. are treated as junior synonyms of Megacraspedus. Furthermore the following species are synonymised: M.subdolellus Staudinger, 1859, syn. n., M.tutti Walsingham, 1897, syn. n., and M.grossisquammellus Chrétien, 1925, syn. n. of M.lanceolellus (Zeller, 1850); M.culminicola Le Cerf, 1932, syn. n. of M.homochroa Le Cerf, 1932; M.separatellus (Fischer von Röslerstamm, 1843), syn. n. and M.incertellus Rebel, 1930, syn. n. of M.dolosellus (Zeller, 1839); M.mareotidellus Turati, 1924, syn. n. of M.numidellus (Chrétien, 1915); M.litovalvellus Junnilainen, 2010, syn. n. of M.imparellus (Fischer von Röslerstamm, 1843); M.kaszabianus Povolný, 1982, syn. n. of M.leuca (Filipjev, 1929); M.chretienella (Dumont, 1928), syn. n., M.halfella (Dumont, 1928), syn. n., and M.arnaldi (Turati & Krüger, 1936), syn. n. of M.violacellum (Chrétien, 1915); M.escalerellus Schmidt, 1941, syn. n. of M.squalida Meyrick, 1926. Megacraspedusribbeella (Caradja, 1920), comb. n., M.numidellus (Chrétien, 1915), comb. n., M.albella (Amsel, 1935), comb. n., M.violacellum (Chrétien, 1915), comb. n., and M.grisea (Filipjev, 1931), comb. n. are newly combined in Megacraspedus.

DNA barcodes for bio-surveillance: regulated and economically important arthropod plant pests

Many of the arthropod species that are important pests of agriculture and forestry are impossible to discriminate morphologically throughout all of their life stages. Some cannot be differentiated at any life stage. Over the past decade, DNA barcoding has gained increasing adoption as a tool to both identify known species and to reveal cryptic taxa. Although there has not been a focused effort to develop a barcode library for them, reference sequences are now available for 77% of the 409 species of arthropods documented on major pest databases. Aside from developing the reference library needed to guide specimen identifications, past barcode studies have revealed that a significant fraction of arthropod pests are a complex of allied taxa. Because of their importance as pests and disease vectors impacting global agriculture and forestry, DNA barcode results on these arthropods have significant implications for quarantine detection, regulation, and management. The current review discusses these implications in light of the presence of cryptic species in plant pests exposed by DNA barcoding.

Species-Level Para- and Polyphyly in DNA Barcode Gene Trees: Strong Operational Bias in European Lepidoptera

The proliferation of DNA data is revolutionizing all fields of systematic research. DNA barcode sequences, now available for millions of specimens and several hundred thousand species, are increasingly used in algorithmic species delimitations. This is complicated by occasional incongruences between species and gene genealogies, as indicated by situations where conspecific individuals do not form a monophyletic cluster in a gene tree. In two previous reviews, non-monophyly has been reported as being common in mitochondrial DNA gene trees. We developed a novel web service “Monophylizer” to detect non-monophyly in phylogenetic trees and used it to ascertain the incidence of species non-monophyly in COI (a.k.a. cox1) barcode sequence data from 4977 species and 41,583 specimens of European Lepidoptera, the largest data set of DNA barcodes analyzed from this regard. Particular attention was paid to accurate species identification to ensure data integrity. We investigated the effects of tree-building method, sampling effort, and other methodological issues, all of which can influence estimates of non-monophyly. We found a 12% incidence of non-monophyly, a value significantly lower than that observed in previous studies. Neighbor joining (NJ) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods yielded almost equal numbers of non-monophyletic species, but 24.1% of these cases of non-monophyly were only found by one of these methods. Non-monophyletic species tend to show either low genetic distances to their nearest neighbors or exceptionally high levels of intraspecific variability. Cases of polyphyly in COI trees arising as a result of deep intraspecific divergence are negligible, as the detected cases reflected misidentifications or methodological errors. Taking into consideration variation in sampling effort, we estimate that the true incidence of non-monophyly is ∼23%, but with operational factors still being included. Within the operational factors, we separately assessed the frequency of taxonomic limitations (presence of overlooked cryptic and oversplit species) and identification uncertainties. We observed that operational factors are potentially present in more than half (58.6%) of the detected cases of non-monophyly. Furthermore, we observed that in about 20% of non-monophyletic species and entangled species, the lineages involved are either allopatric or parapatric—conditions where species delimitation is inherently subjective and particularly dependent on the species concept that has been adopted. These observations suggest that species-level non-monophyly in COI gene trees is less common than previously supposed, with many cases reflecting misidentifications, the subjectivity of species delimitation or other operational factors.

A new genus and species of leaf-mining moth from the French Alps, Mercantouria neli gen. n., sp. n. (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae)

The Alps are a hotspot of biodiversity in Europe with many Lepidoptera species still to be discovered. Here we describe a new gracillariid genus and species, Mercantourianeligen. n. and sp. n. The morphology of the male genitalia is highly differentiated with unique features. DNA barcodes show that its nearest neighbor is the North American species ‘Caloptilia’ scutellariella (Braun, 1923). Mercantourianeli is known from four adults (two males and two females) collected at two localities in the French Alps. Its host plant and life cycle remain unknown.

Exploring Genetic Divergence in a Species-Rich Insect Genus Using 2790 DNA Barcodes

DNA barcoding using a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (COI) has proven to be successful for species-level identification in many animal groups. However, most studies have been focused on relatively small datasets or on large datasets of taxonomically high-ranked groups. We explore the quality of DNA barcodes to delimit species in the diverse chironomid genus Tanytarsus (Diptera: Chironomidae) by using different analytical tools. The genus Tanytarsus is the most species-rich taxon of tribe Tanytarsini (Diptera: Chironomidae) with more than 400 species worldwide, some of which can be notoriously difficult to identify to species-level using morphology. Our dataset, based on sequences generated from own material and publicly available data in BOLD, consist of 2790 DNA barcodes with a fragment length of at least 500 base pairs. A neighbor joining tree of this dataset comprises 131 well separated clusters representing 121 morphological species of Tanytarsus: 77 named, 16 unnamed and 28 unidentified theoretical species. For our geographically widespread dataset, DNA barcodes unambiguously discriminate 94.6% of the Tanytarsus species recognized through prior morphological study. Deep intraspecific divergences exist in some species complexes, and need further taxonomic studies using appropriate nuclear markers as well as morphological and ecological data to be resolved. The DNA barcodes cluster into 120-242 molecular operational taxonomic units (OTUs) depending on whether Objective Clustering, Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD), Generalized Mixed Yule Coalescent model (GMYC), Poisson Tree Process (PTP), subjective evaluation of the neighbor joining tree or Barcode Index Numbers (BINs) are used. We suggest that a 4-5% threshold is appropriate to delineate species of Tanytarsus non-biting midges.

Aenictushoelldobleri sp. n., a new species of the Aenictusceylonicus group (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from China, with a key to the Chinese members of the group

Aenictus is the most species-rich genus of army ants in the subfamily Dorylinae and one of the most species rich ant genera in China and the world. In this paper, a new species of the Aenictusceylonicus group, Aenictushoelldobleri sp. n., is described and illustrated based on the worker caste. The new species occurs in the subtropical forests of south-east China and is morphologically most similar to Aenictushenanensis Li & Wang, 2005 and Aenictuswudangshanensis Wang, 2006. Aenictushoelldobleri sp. n. can be distinguished from both species by the shape of the subpetiolar process. The new species also resembles AenictuslifuiaeTerayama 1984 and Aenictusthailandianus Terayama & Kubota, 1993 but clearly differs in various features of the cuticular sculpture. A key to the Chinese species of the Aenictusceylonicus group based on the worker caste is provided, which may help to reassess and clarify the taxonomic status of the abundant Chinese records of the true Aenictusceylonicus (Mayr, 1866), a species which almost certainly does not occur in China. Several new locality records are given, among them the first record of Aenictuswatanasiti Jaitrong & Yamane, 2013 from China.

Macaria mirthae Vargas et al (Lepidoptera: Geometridae): Confirmation of the Use of an Invasive Host Plant in the Northern Atacama Desert of Chile Based on DNA Barcodes

Macaria mirthae Vargas et al (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) is a geometrid moth native to the northern Atacama Desert of Chile. Its oligophagous larvae are associated with native hosts of the plant family Fabaceae, the most important of which is Acacia macracantha. The invasive tree Leucaena leucocephala (Fabaceae) was recently recorded as a host plant for M. mirthae based on morphology. The taxonomic status of larvae collected on A. macracantha and L. leucocephala was assessed using sequences of the DNA barcode fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. Genetic divergence between samples from the host plants was found to be 0%-0.8% (Kimura 2-parameter model). Neighbor-joining and maximum likelihood analyses were also performed, including additional barcode sequences of Neotropical geometrid moths from GenBank and BOLD databases. Sequences of the larvae from both host plants clustered in a single clade with high statistical support in both analyses. Based on these results, it is concluded that M. mirthae has effectively expanded its host range and its larvae are currently feeding on the exotic tree L. leucocephala. Additionally, the importance of this new host association in a highly disturbed habitat is briefly discussed in terms of the field biology of this native geometrid moth.

Alpha taxonomy of the genus Kessleria Nowicki, 1864, revisited in light of DNA-barcoding (Lepidoptera, Yponomeutidae)

The taxonomy of Kessleria, a highly specialized montane genus of Yponomeutidae with larval host restriction to Saxifragaceae and Celastraceae (Saxifraga spp. - subgenus Kessleria; Saxifraga spp. and Parnassia spp. - subgenus Hofmannia), is revised based on external morphology, genitalia and DNA barcodes. An integrative taxonomic approach supports the existence of 29 species in Europe (the two known species from Asia and North America are not treated herein). A full 658 bp fragment of COI was obtained from 135 specimens representing 24 species, a further seven sequences are >560 bp. Five new species are described: Kessleriacottiensis sp. n. (Prov. Torino, Italy; Dep. Hautes Alpes, France), Kessleriadimorpha sp. n. (Dep. Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France), Kessleriaalpmaritimae sp. n. (Dep. Alpes-Maritimes, France), Kessleriaapenninica sp. n. (Prov. Rieti, Prov. L´Aquila, Italy), and Kessleriaorobiae sp. n. (Prov. Bergamo, Italy).

Integrative taxonomy reveals a new species of Callisto (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae) in the Alps

Europe has one of the best-known Lepidopteran faunas in the world, yet many species are still being discovered, especially in groups of small moths. Here we describe a new gracillariid species from the south-eastern Alps, Callistobasistrigella Huemer, Deutsch & Triberti, sp. n. It shows differences from its sister species Callistocoffeella in morphology, the barcode region of the cytochrome c oxidase I gene and the nuclear gene histone H3. Both Callistobasistrigella and Callistocoffeella can co-occur in sympatry without evidence of admixture. Two Callistobasistrigella specimens show evidence of introgression. We highlight the importance of an integrative approach to delimit species, combining morphological and ecological data with mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data. Furthermore, in connection with this study, Ornixblandella Müller-Rutz, 1920, syn. n. is synonymized with Callistocoffeella (Zetterstedt, 1839).