DNA barcoding and morphology reveal European and western Asian Arctiavillica (Linnaeus, 1758) as a complex of species (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae)

Currently, the genus Schrank, 1802 includes approximately 16 species in the Palaearctic region, depending on the taxonomic interpretation. Here, populations of the (Linnaeus, 1758) morphospecies complex were studied from Europe to the Middle East (Turkey, northern Iran) by molecular methods. Morphol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ZooKeys 2023, Vol.1159, p.69-86
Main Authors: Ortiz, Antonio S, Rubio, Rosa M, de Freina, Josef J, Guerrero, Juan J, Garre, Manuel, Yela, José Luis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Africa
Animalia
Arthropoda
Asia
Austria
Azerbaijan
British Isles
Caucasus
Central Asia
Central Europe
Eastern Europe
Erebidae
Europe
Faunistics & Distribution
Germany
Greece
Hexapoda
Hungary
Iberian Peninsula
Insecta
Invertebrata
Iran
Italy
Kyrgyzstan
Lepidoptera
Middle East
Morocco
Noctuoidea
North Africa
Norway incl. Finnmark
Russia
Scandinavia
Southern Europe and Mediterranean
Syria
Systematics
Taxonomy
Turkey
Western Europe
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Summary:Currently, the genus Schrank, 1802 includes approximately 16 species in the Palaearctic region, depending on the taxonomic interpretation. Here, populations of the (Linnaeus, 1758) morphospecies complex were studied from Europe to the Middle East (Turkey, northern Iran) by molecular methods. Morphological treatment has traditionally revealed the presence of five nominal taxa: (Linnaeus, 1758), (Boisduval, 1829), (Freyer, 1831), de Freina, 1983, and Romanoff, 1884. The molecular approach tests whether they represent well-delimited species. Subsequently, this study corroborates the suitability of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) marker sequence for species delimitation. In total, 55 barcodes of the complex were compared, and two molecular species delimitation algorithms were applied to reveal the potential Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs), namely the distance-based Barcode Index Number (BIN) System, and the hierarchical clustering algorithm based on a pairwise genetic distances approach using the Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning (ASAP). The applied ASAP distance-based species delimitation method for the analysed dataset revealed an interspecific threshold of 2.0-3.5% K2P distance as suitable for species identification purposes of the Iberian and the Sicilian and less than 2% for the three taxa of the clade: , , and . This study contributes to a better understanding of the taxonomy of the genus and challenges future revision of this genus in Turkey, the Caucasus, Transcaucasia as well as northern Iran using standard molecular markers.
ISSN:1313-2989
1313-2970
DOI:10.3897/zookeys.1159.95225