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BackgroundDNA barcoding has been developed as a useful tool for species discrimination. Several sequence-based species delimitation methods, such as Barcode Index Number (BIN), REfined Single Linkage (RESL), Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD), a Java program uses an explicit, determinate algorithm to define Molecular Operational Taxonomic Unit (jMOTU), Generalized Mixed Yule Coalescent (GMYC), and Bayesian implementation of the Poisson Tree Processes model (bPTP), were used. Our aim was to estimate Chinese katydid biodiversity using standard DNA barcode cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI-5P) sequences.ResultsDetection of a barcoding gap by similarity-based analyses and clustering-base analyses indicated that 131 identified morphological species (morphospecies) were assigned to 196 BINs and were divided into four categories: (i) MATCH (83/131 = 64.89%), morphospecies were a perfect match between morphospecies and BINs (including 61 concordant BINs and 22 singleton BINs); (ii) MERGE (14/131 = 10.69%), morphospecies shared its unique BIN with other species; (iii) SPLIT (33/131 = 25.19%, when 22 singleton species were excluded, it rose to 33/109 = 30.28%), morphospecies were placed in more than one BIN; (iv) MIXTURE (4/131 = 5.34%), morphospecies showed a more complex partition involving both a merge and a split. Neighbor-joining (NJ) analyses showed that nearly all BINs and most morphospecies formed monophyletic cluster with little variation. The molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) were defined considering only the more inclusive clades found by at least four of seven species delimitation methods. Our results robustly supported 61 of 109 (55.96%) morphospecies represented by more than one specimen, 159 of 213 (74.65%) concordant BINs, and 3 of 8 (37.5%) discordant BINs.ConclusionsMolecular species delimitation analyses generated a larger number of MOTUs compared with morphospecies. If these MOTU splits are proven to be true, Chinese katydids probably contain a seemingly large proportion of cryptic/undescribed taxa. Future amplification of additional molecular markers, particularly from the nuclear DNA, may be especially useful for specimens that were identified here as problematic taxa.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12862-019-1404-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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