title: Congruence between cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and morphological data in Anuraphis spp. (Hemiptera, Aphididae) with a comparison between the utility of the 5' barcode and 3' COI regions.
abstract: The discrimination of species in the genus Anuraphis is particularly difficult due to the overlap of morphological characters. In this study, we used the 5' (barcode) and 3' regions of cytochrome oxidase I (COI) to test their utility in the identification of species in this genus as well as closely related species. Both regions were useful to discriminate all the species tested. However the non-barcode 3' region resulted in higher resolution and support for species relationships when the data were analyzed using both Maximum Likelihood and MrBayes. We propose the development of an integrated database that encompasses morphological, molecular, life-cycle, host plant and bibliographic information to facilitate and increase the accuracy of aphid identification.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente, Università di Catania, via S. Sofia 100, 95123 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe E Massimino
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Cocuzza
authors.affiliation: Centro di Ricerca per l'Agrumicoltura e le Colture Mediterranee, Corso Savoia 190, 95024 Acireale, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia Di
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Silvestro
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR 00931, USA.
authors.forename: Rosanna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Agricoltura, Alimentazione e Ambiente, Università di Catania, via S. Sofia 100, 95123 Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: Carmelo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rapisarda
keywords: Insects; aphids; species identification; taxonomy