One species in eight: DNA barcodes from type specimens resolve a taxonomic quagmire.

ABSTRACT: Each holotype specimen provides the only objective link to a particular Linnean binomen. Sequence information from them is increasingly valuable due to the growing usage of DNA barcodes in taxonomy. As type specimens are often old, it may only be possible to recover fragmentary sequence information from them. We tested the efficacy of short sequences from type specimens in the resolution of a challenging taxonomic puzzle: the Elachista dispunctella complex which includes 64 described species with minuscule morphological differences. We applied a multistep procedure to resolve the taxonomy of this species complex. First, we sequenced a large number of newly collected specimens and as many holotypes as possible. Second, we used all >400 bp examine species boundaries. We employed three unsupe

SUBMITTER: Mutanen M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4964951 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature