title: DNA barcodes for two scale insect families, mealybugs (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) and armored scales (Hemiptera: Diaspididae).
abstract: Although DNA barcode coverage has grown rapidly for many insect orders, there are some groups, such as scale insects, where sequence recovery has been difficult. However, using a recently developed primer set, we recovered barcode records from 373 specimens, providing coverage for 75 species from 31 genera in two families. Overall success was >90% for mealybugs and >80% for armored scale species. The G·C content was very low in most species, averaging just 16.3%. Sequence divergences (K2P) between congeneric species averaged 10.7%, while intra-specific divergences averaged 0.97%. However, the latter value was inflated by high intra-specific divergence in nine taxa, cases that may indicate species overlooked by current taxonomic treatments. Our study establishes the feasibility of developing a comprehensive barcode library for scale insects and indicates that its construction will both create an effective system for identifying scale insects and reveal taxonomic situations worthy of deeper analysis.
authors.affiliation: Biological Resource Center, KRIBB, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: D-S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: S-J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: P D N
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Hebert
authors.forename: H-W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: K-J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Hong
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006430:Hemiptera / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV