Reading the complex skipper butterfly fauna of one tropical place.

ABSTRACT:

Background

An intense, 30-year, ongoing biodiversity inventory of Lepidoptera, together with their food plants and parasitoids, is centered on the rearing of wild-caught caterpillars in the 120,000 terrestrial hectares of dry, rain, and cloud forest of Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica. Since 2003, DNA barcoding of all species has aided their identification and discovery. We summarize the process and results for a large set of the species of two speciose subfamilies of ACG skipper butterflies (Hesperiidae) and emphasize the effectiveness of barcoding these species (which are often difficult and time-consuming to identify).

Methodology/principal findings

Adults are DNA barcoded by the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, Guelph, Canada; and they a

SUBMITTER: Janzen DH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3156701 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature