Wolbachia and DNA barcoding insects: patterns, potential and problems

Wolbachia is a genus of bacterial endosymbionts that impacts the breeding systems of their hosts. Wolbachia can confuse the patterns of mitochondrial variation, including DNA barcodes, because it influences the pathways through which mitochondria are inherited. We examined the extent to which these endosymbionts are detected in routine DNA barcoding, assessed their impact upon the insect sequence divergence and identification accuracy, and considered the variation present in Wolbachia COI. Using both standard PCR assays (Wolbachia surface coding protein – wsp), and bacterial COI fragments we found evidence of Wolbachia in insect total genomic extracts created for DNA barcoding library construction. When >2 million insect COI trace files were examined on the Barcode of Life Datasystem (BOLD) Wolbachia COI was present in 0.16% of the cases. It is possible to generate Wolbachia COI using standard insect primers; however, that amplicon was never confused with the COI of the host. Wolbachia alleles recovered were predominantly Supergroup A and were broadly distributed geographically and phylogenetically. We conclude that the presence of the Wolbachia DNA in total genomic extracts made from insects is unlikely to compromise the accuracy of the DNA barcode library; in fact, the ability to query this DNA library (the database and the extracts) for endosymbionts is one of the ancillary benefits of such a large scale endeavor – for which we provide several examples. It is our conclusion that regular assays for Wolbachia presence and type can, and should, be adopted by large scale insect barcoding initiatives. While COI is one of the five multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) genes used for categorizing Wolbachia, there is limited overlap with the eukaryotic DNA barcode region

Primer Frenguelliidae (Insecta: Odonata) del Eoceno de Río Pichileufú, Patagonia, Argentina

Se describe un nuevo género, Treintamilun gen. nov., basado en Treintamilun vuelvenlucha sp. nov. de la localidad de Río Pichileufú (Luteciano), Provincia de Río Negro, Patagonia, Argentina. El nuevo género se asigna a Frenguelliidae. El hallazgo de un segundo género y tercera especie de Frenguelliidae es digno de mención, contribuyendo a un mejor conocimiento de esta pequeña familia y confirma su presencia en el Eoceno de la Patagonia. Mientras las especies previamente registradas de Frenguelliidae son del Ypresiano (52 Ma) de Laguna del Hunco, la nueva especie viene de la localidad vecina a 160 Km y con una edad de 48 Ma. Los Frenguelliidae comparten un surco nodal reducido, una ScP llegando al margen alar muy oblicua al nodus, una Cr nodal subvertical y un nodus vertical, y uno de los caracteres aparentes del plan básico de los Epiproctophora, una CuP curvada. Palabras clave: Odonata, Frenguelliidae, Treintamilun vuelvenlucha gen. nov. et sp. nov., Luteciano, Patagonia, Argentina.A new genus, Treintamilun gen. nov., based on Treintamilun vuelvenlucha sp. nov. is described from Río Pichileufú (Lutetian), Río Negro province, Patagonia, Argentina. The new genus is assigned to Frenguelliidae. The finding of a second genus and third species of Frenguelliidae is noteworthy, contributing to the better knowledge of this little known family and bear out its presence in the Eocene of Patagonia. While the previous species of Frenguelliidae were recorded from the Ypresian (52 Ma) of Laguna del Hunco, the new one comes from the neighbour locality 160 Km far and 48 Ma old. The Frenguelliidae share a nodal furrow reduced, a ScP reaching costal margin very obliquely at nodus, a nodal Cr sub-vertical and subnodus vertical, and one of the groundplan apparent characters of the Epiproctophora, a curved CuP.Fil: Petrulevicius, Julian Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Paleozoología Invertebrados; Argentin

TGLE Vol. 51 nos. 3 & 4 full issue

TGLE Vol. 51 nos. 3 & 4 full issu

TGLE Vol 50 nos. 3 & 4 full issue

The Great Lakes Entomologist Volume 50 Numbers 3 & 4 Fall/Winter full issue

THE OLDEST ANTS ARE CRETACEOUS, NOT EOCENE: REPLY

Our study of the Hat Creek amber (Poinar et al. 1999) was undertaken to determine the range of the biota in the resin, to identify the plant that produced the resin, and to assess the future implications of these significant deposits. The study was in no way "compromised” by providing an alternative interpretation of the systematic position of the genus Sphecomyrma Wilson and Brow

New Distribution Records of Ground Beetles From the North Central United States (Coleoptera: Carabidae)

We report 39 ground beetles new to five states in the upper midwestern United States. These species records include 19 new to Illinois (all but one from Lake County), 11 from Iowa, three from South Dakota, eight from Wisconsin, and two from Michigan. (Three species are new to more than one state). Enigmatically disjunct collections include the myrmecophile, Helluomorphoides nigripennis from western Illinois, known previously only from the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain and piedmont, and Chlaenius amoenus, reported only from southeastern states and now from northeast Iowa

Biting midges from Dominican amber : 3. Species of the tribes Culicoidini and Ceratopogonini (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

The following 10 new species of biting midges are described and illustrated from Dominican amber: Culicoides (Oecacta) antilleanus, C. (0.) brodzinskyi, C. (0.) ambericus, C. (0.) hispanicolus, C. mammalicolus, Brachypogon (B.) american us, B. (Isohelea) dominicanus, B. (Isohelea) prominuloides, Stilobezzia (S.) antilleana and S. (Acanthohelea) dominicana. Two other species, in Nannohelea and Stilobezzia, are described but not named. Stilobezzia (Acanthohelea) wirthicola is a new name for Stilobezzia (A.) succinea Szadziewski from Miocene Saxonian amber, which is preoccupied by the extant Stilobezzia succinea Ingram and Macfie, from Argentina

Ethology and Overwintering of \u3ci\u3ePodalonia Luctuosa\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae)

The nesting and overwintering behavior of Podalonia luctuosa (Smith) was studied in New York and Colorado. Females provisioned shallow (ca. 2 cm deep), unicellular nests with a single cutworm (Noctuidae) during April, May, and July. Paralyzed prey were trans- ported on the ground and were cached on plants just above ground level. Prey weights averaged about 400 mg. The miltogrammine fly Hilarella hilarella Zetterstedt parasitized prey at both localities. From I to IO adult females were found to overwinter in burrows 0.5 m deep, which were dug in late summer and early fall. Collection data and field studies indicated that P. luctuosa is bivoltine in the NE U.S

Bibliographic Guide to the Terrestrial Arthropods of Michigan

Papers dealing with distribution, faunal extensions, and identification of Michigan insects and other terrestrial arthropods are listed by order, and cover the period of 1878 through 1982