Extreme diversity of tropical parasitoid wasps exposed by iterative integration of natural history, DNA barcoding, morphology, and collections

Abstract

We DNA barcoded 2,597 parasitoid wasps belonging to 6 microgastrine braconid genera reared from parapatric tropical dry forest, cloud forest, and rain forest in Area de Conservació n Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica and combined these data with records of caterpillar hosts and morphological analyses. We asked whether barcoding and morphology discover the same provisional species and whether the biological entities revealed by our analysis are congruent with wasp host specificity. Morphological analysis revealed 171 provisional species, but barcoding exposed an additional 142 provisional species; 95% of the total is likely to be undescribed. These 313 provisional species are extraordinarily host specific; more than 90% attack only 1 or 2 species of caterpillars out of more than 3,500 species sampled. The most extreme case of overlooked diversity is the morphospecies Apanteles leucostigmus. This minute black wasp with a distinctive white wing stigma was thought to parasitize 32 species of ACG hesperiid caterpillars, but barcoding revealed 36 provisional species, each attacking one or a very few closely related species of caterpillars. When host records and/or within-ACG distributions suggested that DNA barcoding had missed a species-pair, or when provisional species were separated only by slight differences in their barcodes, we examined nuclear sequences to test hypotheses of presumptive species boundaries and to further probe host specificity. Our iterative process of combining morphological analysis, ecology, and DNA barcoding and reiteratively using specimens maintained in permanent collections has resulted in a much more fine-scaled understanding of parasitoid diversity and host specificity than any one of these elements could have produced on its own.Area de Conservació n Guanacaste ͉ Costa Rica ͉ caterpillar ͉ Braconidae ͉ host specificity

DNA Barcoding Indonesian freshwater fishes: challenges and prospects

“…Recent large-scale DNA barcoding campaigns have demonstrated that DNA barcoding will have to face the undescribed diversity of earth biotas [e.g. [27][28][29] and that DNA barcodes might help to speed up the pace of species discovery through automated delineation of mitochondrial lineages. This approach is particularly relevant when applied to areas of exceptional diversity facing massive anthropogenic threats and as such, urgently awaiting more comprehensive assessments [1][2][3]185].…”

“…Compared to morphological characters, DNA barcodes presents several advantages: (1) intraspecific phenotypic variation often These detailed specimens and barcode records ensure the reproducibility of the PCR and sequencing protocols by providing contact of the peoples involved in generating DNA barcodes. In addition, it enables the continuous updating of the identification of specimens by the community of users and facilitates the use of DNA barcodes for further taxonomic studies [21,[27][28][29][30][31]183]. To further improve the quality of DNA barcode data, the BARCODE data standard as been implemented in GenBank for the records that are compliant with the following requirements: 1.…”

“…Recently, the effectiveness of such iterative procedures including DNA barcoding, taxonomy and natural history in the delineation of species has been highlighted in speciose communities [27,[186][187][188]. Procedures including DNA barcoding as a first step toward the fast description of species based on the combination of COI sequences, concise morphological descriptions, and high-resolution digital imaging enable the description of larger number of species.…”

“…The dominant families, however, varies among biogeographical provinces as Sundaland is dominated by the Cyprinidae (231 species; changes during ontogeny, fish identification is not an easy task. After almost a decade, it has become evident that DNA barcoding presents several advantages compared to morphological characters for species identification including: (1) intraspecific phenotypic variation often overlaps that of sister taxa in nature, which can lead to incorrect identifications or species delineations [21,22], (2) DNA barcodes are effective whatever the life stages under scrutiny [23,24] or available biological materials for identification [25,26], (3) spectacular levels of cryptic diversity have been frequently reported using DNA barcoding [21,[27][28][29][30][31].…”

Partitioning of herbivore hosts across time and food plants promotes diversification in the Megastigmus dorsalis oak gall parasitoid complex

“…High herbivore host diversity and shared generalist natural enemies can be reconciled if apparent generalist enemies in fact comprise genetically divergent cryptic lineages that each attack only a subset of the species’ recorded host range. Such structuring has been revealed in a range of systems (Forbes, Powell, Stelinski, Smith, & Feder, 2009; Hood et al., 2015; Smith, Wood, Janzen, Hallwachs, & Hebert, 2007; Smith et al., 2008; Stireman et al., 2006). More broadly, understanding how insect herbivores and parasitoid communities are structured has implications for many aspects of ecosystem management, including biological control of herbivorous pests (Carvalheiro, Buckley, Ventim, Fowler, & Memmott, 2008; Henneman & Memmott, 2001), and predicting the impacts of range expansions associated with anthropogenic introductions and climate change (Nicholls, Fuentes‐Utrilla, et al., 2010; Sax et al., 2007).…”