DNA barcodes reveal deeply neglected diversity and numerous invasions of micromoths in Madagascar

Abstract

Madagascar is a prime evolutionary hotspot globally, but its unique biodiversity is under threat, essentially from anthropogenic disturbance. There is a race against time to describe and protect the Madagascan endangered biota. Here we present a first molecular characterization of the micromoth fauna of Madagascar. We collected 1572 micromoths mainly using light traps in both natural and anthropogenically disturbed habitats in 24 localities across eastern and northwest Madagascar. We also collected 1384 specimens using a Malaise trap in a primary rain forest at Andasibe, eastern Madagascar. In total, we DNA barcoded 2956 specimens belonging to 1537 Barcode Index Numbers (BINs), 88.4% of which are new to BOLD. Only 1.7% of new BINs were assigned to species. Of 47 different families found, Dryadaulidae, Bucculatricidae, Bedelliidae, Batrachedridae, and Blastobasidae are newly reported for Madagascar and the recently recognized Tonzidae is confirmed. For test faunas of Canada and Australia, 98.9%-99.4% of Macroheterocera BINs exhibited the molecular synapomorphy of a phenylalanine in the 177th complete DNA barcode codon. Non-macroheteroceran BINs could thus be sifted out efficiently in the Malaise sample. The Madagascar micromoth fauna shows highest affinity with the Afrotropics (146 BINs also occur in the African continent). We found 22 recognised pests or invasive species, mostly occurring in disturbed habitats. Malaise trap samples show high temporal turnover and alpha diversity with as many as 507 BINs collected; of these, astonishingly, 499 (98.4%) were novel to BOLD and 292 (57.6%) were singletons. Our results provide a baseline for future surveys across the island.

The Eastern Palaearctic Cosmopterix feminella Sinev, 1988, introduced in Italy: taxonomy, biology and a new synonymy (Lepidoptera, Cosmopterigidae)

“…We obtained completely identical DNA barcodes from six specimens of C. feminella from Italy, all belonging to the new Barcode Index Number BOLD:ADG7284, and with a distance of 5.8% to the nearest neighbour, an unidentified Cosmopterix species from Madagascar with BIN BOLD: ACT2622 (specimen BIOUG18998-F03). This specimen was collected with a Malaise trap and therefore its external morphology is poorly preserved (Lopez-Vaamonde et al 2018). Unfortunately no barcodes are yet known from the Asian populations.…”

Evaluating DNA Barcoding for Species Identification and Discovery in European Gracillariid Moths

“…Meanwhile, only a small fraction of species on Earth have been formally described and assigned a scientific name (Scheffers et al, 2012), so many taxa are likely to go extinct before we know of their existence (Eggleton, 2020). The incompleteness of our current census of life, referred as the "Linnean shortfall" (Raven and Wilson, 1992), is especially acute for the most diverse yet least studied groups such as small insects, and for the high diversity tropics (Delabye et al, 2019;Lopez-Vaamonde et al, 2019).…”

debar, a sequence-by-sequence denoiser for COI-5P DNA barcode data

“…Reflecting advances in sequencing technology, DNA barcode studies are expanding in scale from analyzing single specimens to characterizing bulk samples, an approach termed metabarcoding, as well as multi-marker and metagenomics approaches (Taberlet et al 2012;Cristescu 2014;Hajibabaei et al 2016;Wilson et al 2019). These advances are providing newly detailed information on species diversity in different geographic regions and habitats (Hajibabaei et al 2012;Hebert et al 2016;Delabye et al 2019;Lopez-Vaamonde et al 2019) while also aiding the identification of invasive species (Brown et al 2016;Xu et al 2017), food web analysis (Wirta et al 2014;Kanuisto et al 2017), and environmental monitoring (Hajibabaei et al 2016;Stat et al 2017;Cordier et al 2019).…”