DNA Barcoding and New Records of Odonates (Insecta: Odonata) from Paraíba State, Brazil

Abstract

Odonates (Insecta: Odonata) are important insects in the food chains of freshwater environments around the world, being used as a model species for areas of behavior and analysis of environmental quality. In Brazil, especially in the Northeastern region, both knowledge about the distribution and molecular information of odonate species found in the two main biomes of the region is still limited. Aiming to improve these issues, here, we carried out an Odonata survey in two locations and built a DNA barcode database for species from the state of Paraíba. In total, 15 first records were reported for this Brazilian state and 142 specimens from 27 genera and 45 species had their ‘Folmer’ cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) fragment evaluated. The database we generated includes data for 70% of the Odonata species found in Paraíba state. For 16 species, this is the first DNA barcode available in public sequence repositories. Our results demonstrate that using the COI in the regional scale can help identify and delimit those evaluated. Eight species (17%) showed a low percentage of differentiation (<2%) compared to other species currently deposited in the GenBank or BOLD System; nevertheless, we present morphological traits that reaffirm our identifications. Barcode data provide new insights into Neotropical diversity and deliver basic information for taxonomic analyses.

A Special Issue on the Diversity, Ecology and Evolution of Dragonflies and Damselflies (Insecta: Odonata)

“…Finally, the article "DNA barcoding and new records of odonates (Insecta: Odonata) from Paraíba state, Brazil" [9] reports the results of a study of Odonata species in the Brazilian state of Paraíba and the creation of a DNA barcoding database for 70% of the species found in this state. The results show that the use of the COI fragment at the regional level can help in the identification and delimitation of species, and that morphological characteristics can be used to further confirm such identifications.…”

Ficha de Orthemis flavopicta

“…No Brasil, a espécie ocorre no estado do Piauí, Ceará, Paraíba, Sergipe e Mato Grosso (Takiya et al, 2016;Koroiva et al, 2022).…”

Checklist of Odonata species from Serra of Itabaiana National Park, and an update and new records for the state of Sergipe, Brazil

“…Approximately 1,800 species are found in the Neotropical region (Von Ellenrieder 2009), and it is estimated that over 870 Odonata species and 152 genera of dragonflies are recorded in Brazil (IUCN 2024), with four families of Anisoptera and 11 families of Zygoptera (Hamada et al 2014). Recent years have witnessed a significant upsurge in ecological studies centered on Odonata diversity in Brazil (Miguel et al 2017, Koroiva et al 2022). As a result, Brazil has emerged as one of the top contributors to the global corpus of Odonata-focused publications (Oliveira-Junior et al 2022).…”

“…A brief literature review revealed that Odonata inventory studies have been published in the following states: Ceará (Takiya et al 2016), Sergipe (Santos et al 2020), Bahia (Ribeiro et al 2021a), Paraíba (Koroiva et al 2021), and Alagoas (Godé & Ferreira-Peruquetti 2015, Farias et al 2023). In addition, there are studies on occurrence records of species in other northeastern states (Mesquita & Matteo 1991, De Marco-Júnior 2008, Carvalho & Bravo 2014, Irusta & Lencioni 2015, Nobre 2016, Bastos et al 2019, Lacerda & Machado 2019, Ribeiro et al 2021b, Garcia-Junior et al 2022, Koroiva et al 2022.…”