Integration of DNA barcoding into an ongoing inventory of complex tropical biodiversity

Abstract

Inventory of the caterpillars, their food plants and parasitoids began in 1978 for today's Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG), in northwestern Costa Rica. This complex mosaic of 120 000 ha of conserved and regenerating dry, cloud and rain forest over 0-2000 m elevation contains at least 10 000 species of non-leaf-mining caterpillars used by more than 5000 species of parasitoids. Several hundred thousand specimens of ACG-reared adult Lepidoptera and parasitoids have been intensively and extensively studied morphologically by many taxonomists, including most of the co-authors. DNA barcoding -the use of a standardized short mitochondrial DNA sequence to identify specimens and flush out undisclosed species -was added to the taxonomic identification process in 2003.

Food plants and life histories of sawflies of the families Argidae and Tenthredinidae (Hymenoptera) in Costa Rica, a supplement

“…We gratefully acknowledge the team of ACG parataxonomists (Janzen et al 2009) who found and reared the specimens used in this study, and the team of biodiversity managers who keep alive the ACG forests that host these sawflies. The study has been supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grants BSR 9024770 and DEB 9306296, 9400829, 9705072, 0072730, 0515699, and grants from the Wege Foundation, International Conservation Fund of Canada, Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust, Blue Moon Fund, Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund, Area de Conservación Guanacaste, and University of Pennsylvania (DHJ).…”

DNA barcoding in floral and faunal research

“…Recent reviews of the state of development of barcoding include Waugh DNA barcoding provides an important tool to improve the quality or speed of floral and faunal studies, while, at the same time, such studies contribute to development of the global sequence library that is becoming an important community resource. The large-scale inventory of caterpillars, their hosts and their parasites in Costa Rica has provided an excellent example of how barcoding has changed the basic approach to an inventory project, starting with sampling, processing, identification, analysis, and even changing the approach to publication of results (Janzen et al, 2009; Hallwachs 2011a, 2011b; see also Strutzenberger et al, 2010). In addition to the changes in work flow there have been significant impacts, from finding cryptic species to matching dimorphic males and females, which have substantially improved the quality and depth of the inventory, but also greatly multiplied the number of situations requiring further taxonomic work for resolu- (Kress et al, 2009(Kress et al, , 2010Costion et al, 2011).…”

“…The large-scale inventory of caterpillars, their hosts and their parasites in Costa Rica has provided an excellent example of how barcoding has changed the basic approach to an inventory project, starting with sampling, processing, identification, analysis, and even changing the approach to publication of results (Janzen et al, 2009;Hallwachs 2011a, 2011b; see also Strutzenberger et al, 2010). In addition to the changes in work flow there have been significant impacts, from finding cryptic species to matching dimorphic males and females, which have substantially improved the quality and depth of the inventory, but also greatly multiplied the number of situations requiring further taxonomic work for resolution.…”

“…Because we are able to do DNA barcodes for more specimens than were dissected under the old system, we have more data for species concept delimitation, and we catch more errors in association of individuals with species concepts (for example, poor quality specimens). Similar projects in Costa Rica and Canada have gone through a similar transition in work process (de Waard et al, 2009;Janzen et al, 2009; Hallwachs 2011a, 2011b).A collection of Lepidoptera reared from native fruits in PNG in 2008-2009 provides an example of the new process of using barcoding. While there are some lineages of Lepidoptera that specialise in using fruit as larval hosts, rearing Lepidoptera from fruit is a time-consuming, messy and relatively low-yield activity, so it is rarely done on a mass scale, but the results are interesting.…”

Contributions to the study of the Holarctic fauna of Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera, Braconidae). I. Introduction and first results of transatlantic comparisons

“…DNA barcoding uses a short standardized region of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase (COI) as a key character for species-level identification and discovery (Floyd et al 2002;Hebert et al 2003a;Hebert et al 2003b;Janzen et al 2009;Smith et al 2006;Smith et al 2007;Smith et al 2008). DNA barcoding has been extensively used in biodiversity and taxonomic studies of Microgastrinae during the past few years (summarized in Fernández-Triana et al 2014), due to the recent availability of over 20,000 sequences from more than 75 countries (e.g., Smith et al 2013).…”