Morphological and genetic indiscrimination of the grain aphids, Sitobion avenae complex (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

Abstract

Four grain aphids, Sitobion spp. [S. avenae (F.), S. akebiae (Shinji), S. miscanthi (Takahashi) and S. fragariae (Walker)] on various grasses (Poaceae), nominated as Sitobion avenae-complex in this paper, were compared for their morphological and genetic characteristics. For morphological comparison, ten characters frequently used in the identification of S. avenae-complex were compared among samples from various global locations. The results from these comparisons demonstrated that the ranges of specific characteristics overlap considerably. The means of most characteristics were very similar among S. avenae, S. miscanthi and S. akebiae, indicating that the characteristics are not useful for the individual identification of these three grain aphids. Also, the intra-specific variations of the Far Eastern S. akebiae were as large as the inter-specific differences between S. miscanthi and S. avenae. In the nucleotide sequence comparison of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit II (mt COII) gene, the pair-wise genetic distances among the populations of the three species ranged from 0.00 to 1.56%, almost equal to the intra-specific distances of Far Eastern S. akebiae (0.00-1.38%). In this context, it is suggested that S. akebiae (Shinji) syn. n. and S. miscanthi (Takahashi) syn. n. be synonymized under the senior name, S. avenae (F.).

Morphometric studies of the genusSitobionMordvilko 1914 in Australia (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

“…Choe et al . (2006) proposed that the species S. miscanthi and S. akebiae should be synonymised under S. avenae , on the basis of PCA and some molecular data.…”

“…Qualitative observations suggested some differences in cuticular pigmentation and internal colour between 2n = 18 and 2n = 17 or 20 S. miscanthi , although the difference between the latter two was slight (Turak 1992). Choe et al . (2006) recently concluded, on the basis of morphometric and molecular evidence, that both S. miscanthi and the Asian Sitobion akebiae (Shinji) should be synonymised under Sitobion avenae (Fabricius), the now widespread European grain aphid.…”

Molecular Taxonomic Identification of Dacus and Ceratitis Species From Sub-Saharan Africa Using Mitochondrial Haplotypes

“…In these situations, biological material is usually intercepted at juvenile stages (Choe et al 2006). However, because morphologically based taxonomic keys for preadult material are often unavailable or can be difÞcult to use, reliance on these characters for species identiÞcation is often quite problematic (White and Elson-Harris 1992).…”

Identification of aphid species (Hemiptera: Aphididae: Aphidinae) using a rapid polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism method based on the cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene

“…(2005) characterised four new Australian taxa with PCR‐RFLP from the genus Cladopelma Kieffer (Diptera: Chironomidae). In the same way DNA sequence data on the cytochrome oxidase subunit II has revealed that the Sitobion avenae (Fabricius) complex is confirmed by the presence of three closely related taxa with a number of morphological and life cycle variations (Choe et al. 2006)…”

“…2004). Molecular markers are particularly useful where morphological and ecological observations are ambiguous (Choe et al. 2006).…”