Barcoding lepidoptera: current situation and perspectives on the usefulness of a contentious technique

Abstract

Barcoding Lepidoptera: Situação Atual e Perspectivas sobre a Utilidade de uma Técnica Controversa RESUMO -A necessidade crescente de identificação e delimitação de novas espécies, ou de espécies crípticas já estabelecidas, que estão sendo perdidas a uma taxa também crescente, tem levado diversos especialistas a utilizarem uma variedade de ferramentas moleculares e computacionais. Neste momento, taxonomistas devem estar atentos a toda nova tecnologia disponível na chamada "revolução dirigida pela tecnologia" na sistemática, que tem entre as novas ferramentas moleculares a utilização de "DNA barcodes". O uso de "DNA barcode" tem sido amplamente discutido por aqueles que aplicam essa abordagem com sucesso para identificar e diagnosticar espécies, e por aqueles que acreditam que são tantos os problemas no uso desse marcador molecular que não se justifica seu emprego. Para insetos da ordem Lepidoptera nenhum lado parece estar totalmente certo ou errado e, embora alguns grupos de lepidópteros tenham sido resolvidos taxonomicamente pelo uso exclusivo ou adicional desse marcador, para outros o "barcode" ajudou pouco a resolver problemas taxonômicos. Aqui nós apresentamos brevemente prós e contras do uso de "DNA barcode" como ferramenta em estudos taxonômicos, com atenção especial para estudos com grupos de Lepidoptera desenvolvidos nos últimos anos. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Biodiversidade, DNA, espécie críptica, sistemática, taxonomia ABSTRACT -Faced by a growing need of identification and delimitation of new and established cryptic species that are being lost at an increasing rate, taxonomists can now more than ever take advantage of an enormous variety of new molecular and computational tools. At this moment they should be open to all new available technologies in the so called "technology-driven revolution" in systematics. The use of the "DNA barcode" has been discussed by those applying successfully this approach to identify and diagnose species and by those who believe that the flaws in the use of this molecular marker are as many as to negate the worth of its employment. For insects of the order Lepidoptera neither side seems totally correct or wrong, and although many groups of lepidopterans have been taxonomically resolved by using exclusively or additionally this marker for diagnoses, for others the "barcode" helped little to resolve taxonomic issues. Here we briefly present some pros and cons of using DNA barcode as a tool in taxonomic studies, with special attention to studies with groups of Lepidoptera developed in the last few years.

Detection and Genetic Diversity of a Heliothine Invader (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) From North and Northeast of Brazil

“…The current study demonstrated the effectiveness of DNA barcodes for distinguishing H. armigera from H. zea (Table 2). The use of DNA barcodes has also succeeded in species-level identiÞcation for Ͼ50,000 species of Lepidoptera so far (Hebert et al 2004, Hajibabaei et al 2006, Burns et al 2008, Silva-Brandão et al 2009, Jinbo et al 2011.…”

Use of DNA Barcodes to Identify Invasive ArmywormSpodopteraSpecies in Florida

“…There are several examples of inaccurate species assignments using DNA barcoding that identify potential limitations in the methodology (Elias et al 2007; Dasmahapatra et al 2010). These were associated with problems arising from incomplete barcode coverage of existing diversity, the apparent absence of consistent barcode gaps in certain taxa, and the potentially confounding effects of incomplete lineage sorting that can be difficult to assess (reviewed in Rubinoff et al 2006; Silva-Brandao et al 2009). However, the technique was successfully applied in a study where 150 lepidopteran specimens were correctly assigned using a barcode database of 200 closely allied species (Hebert et al 2003).…”

Prey identification in nests of the potter wasp Hypodynerus andeus (Packard) (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Eumeninae) using DNA barcodes

“…DNA barcoding provides a very useful tool for species identification and species delimitation (Hebert et al 2003b(Hebert et al , 2010Dincã et al 2011;Goldstein & DeSalle 2011;Teletchea 2010;Hausmann et al 2011Hausmann et al , 2013Puillandre et al 2011;Strutzenberger et al 2011;Mutanen et al 2012;Laiho & Ståhls 2013;Nagy et al 2013), and is especially valuable for associating extreme forms, sexes and different stages of the life cycle of organisms (Miller et al 2005;Hausmann & Parra 2009;Silva-Brandão et al 2009;Jinbo et al 2011;Li et al 2011). DNA barcodes may be potentially useful for studying trophic links in complex field scenarios (Valentini et al 2009), as in the case of webs involving host-parasitoid interactions, where many times host identification must be performed using immature stages (Hrcek et al 2011).…”