Molecular identification supports most traditional morphological species of Ruspolia (Orthoptera : Conocephalinae)

Abstract

Molecular identification systems depend on genetic diversity based on a short mitochondrial DNA fragment being markedly lower within than between species to infer identification of specimens. Our analyses show that both COI and CytB fragments can successfully distinguish most Ruspolia species. R. jezoensis was synonymised with R. dubia, and R. liangshanensis may be recently separated from R. dubia. R. indica, often called Euconocephalus indicus, occupied a well supported position within Ruspolia, and should be transferred into Ruspolia. The individuals of R. lineosa from Yunnan formed a monophyletic group at the base of the R. lineosa clade, and the Kimura 2-parameter distance between it and other R. lineosa individuals was 0.065 for COI and 0.069 for CytB, which may be the result of isolated or remote populations. However, for recently diverged taxa R. liangshanensis and R. dubia, straightforward application of barcoding rules may prove problematic without morphological, behavioural or ecological data.

Singleton molecular species delimitation based on COI-5P barcode sequences revealed high cryptic/undescribed diversity for Chinese katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae)

“…Meanwhile, both RESL and jMOTU analysis indicated R. dubia , R. jezoensis , and R. liangshanensis pooled into one MOTU. Consistent results has also been previously observed in which with regard to R. jezoensis synonymised to R. dubia , and R. liangshanensis may be recently separated from R. dubia [ 36 ]. Conocephalus japonicus is nested within the C. longipennis cluster.…”

“…DNA barcoding has been used to document both grasshoppers [ 10 , 31 – 34 ] and katydids [ 35 , 36 ]. Unfortunately, these studies included only a few species and a limited number of specimens from each species, which prevents the rigorous assessment of species boundaries among closely related lineages and for calculation of intraspecific distances.…”

DNA Barcoding of genus Hexacentrus in China reveals cryptic diversity within Hexacentrus japonicus (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae)

“…For example, Versteirt et al (2015) found that DNA barcoding offered a reliable framework for mosquito species identification in Belgium except for some closely related species. Zhou et al (2012) found that molecular identification with DNA barcoding supported most traditional morphological species of genus Ruspolia in China.…”

The complete mitochondrial genome of Ruspolia yunnana (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Conocephalinae)

“…Only eight species have been reported from China including: R. dubia , R. interruptus , R. indica and R. lineosa and so on (Zhou et al. 2012 ). In recent years, with the rapid development of sequencing technology, the amount of sequencing data of mitochondrial genomes of Orthoptera insects is increasing day by day.…”