DNA barcoding uncovers cryptic diversity in minute herbivorous mites (Acari, Eriophyoidea)

Abstract

Because plants and their herbivores comprise a high proportion of terrestrial biodiversity (Price, 2002), they play a central role in energy flow to higher trophic levels (Futuyma & Agrawal, 2009). Although strong evidence points to the rapid impoverishment of global biodiversity (Hallmann et al., 2017; Van Klink et al., 2020), a detailed understanding of herbivores and their interactions with plants is lacking (Hebert, Penton, et al., 2004). This is particularly true for cryptic species where difficulties in identification impede evaluations of species richness and determinations of host specificity, limiting understanding of plant-herbivore interactions. Although cryptic species are morphologically indistinguishable, they are often readily discernible by molecular approaches (Bickford et al., 2007;

Integrative Taxonomy and Synonymization of Aculus mosoniensis (Acari: Eriophyidae), a Potential Biological Control Agent for Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima)

“…taihangensis from the Shandong province in China were identical to that of A. mosoniensis specimens collected in Austria and Slovenia, and the pairwise genetic p -distance between Ac. taihangensis and A. mosoniensis averaged 7.68%, which is much higher than the average intraspecific divergence (1.15%) in the Eriophyidae [ 29 ] but twofold less than estimates of intraspecific variation in other eriophyid mites such as Aceria tosichella Keifer (14.5%, e.g., [ 15 ]). Moreover, this estimate was also less than half the genetic distances between Aculus species (23–24.78%) estimated in the present study, in the Eriophyidae (19.86% [ 29 ]), and between congeneric species in other genera, such as Aculodes (20.2–21.5% [ 13 ]) or Aceria (15.6–22.0% [ 15 ]).…”

“…Our dataset of 24 CO1 sequences was then merged with twelve sequences of Ac. taihangensis retrieved from the Barcode of Life system (BOLD) and reported by Yin et al [ 29 ]. A total of 36 CO1 and 45 length-variable ITS1 sequences (combining clones and phased genotypes) were aligned by CLUSTAL W, as implemented in MEGA 11 [ 30 ].…”

Phylogeny of Calvittacus Revealing a New Species from China (Acari: Eriophyidae)

“…COI barcodes were recently explored in eriophyoid mite delimitation, showing a clear gap between interspecific divergence and intraspecific divergence, and thus enabling a discrimination of 99% of the eriophyoid mite species [ 6 ]. We provided 14 COI barcode sequences of C. spectabilus sp.…”

“…PCR was used to amplify the 658 bp barcode region of the mitochondrial COI gene using the primer pairs bcdF01/bcdR04 [ 14 ]. PCR reaction, purification, and sequencing followed Yin et al [ 6 ].…”

“…For instance, given more than 1200 eriophyoid mites described in China, an average of 12 new species per year were added in the last three years [ 5 ]. Furthermore, the Chinese fauna of eriophyoid mites was suggested, including over 2300 species [ 6 ]. It is likely that 1000 species could be recovered in China in future studies.…”