Morphological and molecular identification of acridid grasshoppers (Acrididae: Orthoptera) from Poonch division, Azad Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan

The present study was conducted to resolve conflicts in the identification of grasshopper species of the family Acrididae (Orthoptera) on the basis of morphology and DNA barcoding. Grasshoppers representing 26 species of the family Acrididae were collected from different habitats and host plants fro...

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Main Authors: N. Nazir, K. Mehmood, M. Ashfaq, J. Rahim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wildlife Information Liaison Development Society 2014-03-01
Series:Journal of Threatened Taxa
Online Access:http://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/article/view/214
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author N. Nazir
K. Mehmood
M. Ashfaq
J. Rahim
author_facet N. Nazir
K. Mehmood
M. Ashfaq
J. Rahim
author_sort N. Nazir
collection DOAJ
description The present study was conducted to resolve conflicts in the identification of grasshopper species of the family Acrididae (Orthoptera) on the basis of morphology and DNA barcoding. Grasshoppers representing 26 species of the family Acrididae were collected from different habitats and host plants from Poonch division of Azad Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan. Specimens were identified taxonomically and DNA sequenced for the cytochrome c oxidase (COI) barcode region. Barcodes of 19 morphological species were successfully obtained and the sequence data was used to separate species by Neighbor-Joining cluster analysis. Barcode data successfully discriminated 18 species, while two: Patanga japonica (Bolivar, 1898) and P. succincta (Johannson, 1763) could not be distinguished since they shared the barcode sequence and clustered together on the Neighbor-Joining (NJ) tree. Morphologically, specimens of Shirakiacris shirakii (Bolívar, 1914) were identified as one species, but barcode data revealed that in addition to Shirakiacris shirakii (Bolívar, 1914) two other species of the genus Shirakiacris are present in the region. Similarly, on the basis of morphological characters two species were indentified in subfamily Catantopinae, Catantops erubescens (Walker, 1870) and Xenocatantops brachycerus (Willemse, 1932), but barcode data suggest the presence of an additional Catantops species in the region. These findings show the usefulness of barcode data in discriminating grasshopper species and indicate that such data can be reliably used for developing reference libraries for species identification via sequence matches.
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spelling doaj.art-97d94c3a9c754efd93cd70bea1a76d812022-12-21T19:28:00ZengWildlife Information Liaison Development SocietyJournal of Threatened Taxa0974-78930974-79072014-03-01635544555210.11609/JoTT.o3507.5544-52200Morphological and molecular identification of acridid grasshoppers (Acrididae: Orthoptera) from Poonch division, Azad Jammu Kashmir, PakistanN. NazirK. MehmoodM. AshfaqJ. RahimThe present study was conducted to resolve conflicts in the identification of grasshopper species of the family Acrididae (Orthoptera) on the basis of morphology and DNA barcoding. Grasshoppers representing 26 species of the family Acrididae were collected from different habitats and host plants from Poonch division of Azad Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan. Specimens were identified taxonomically and DNA sequenced for the cytochrome c oxidase (COI) barcode region. Barcodes of 19 morphological species were successfully obtained and the sequence data was used to separate species by Neighbor-Joining cluster analysis. Barcode data successfully discriminated 18 species, while two: Patanga japonica (Bolivar, 1898) and P. succincta (Johannson, 1763) could not be distinguished since they shared the barcode sequence and clustered together on the Neighbor-Joining (NJ) tree. Morphologically, specimens of Shirakiacris shirakii (Bolívar, 1914) were identified as one species, but barcode data revealed that in addition to Shirakiacris shirakii (Bolívar, 1914) two other species of the genus Shirakiacris are present in the region. Similarly, on the basis of morphological characters two species were indentified in subfamily Catantopinae, Catantops erubescens (Walker, 1870) and Xenocatantops brachycerus (Willemse, 1932), but barcode data suggest the presence of an additional Catantops species in the region. These findings show the usefulness of barcode data in discriminating grasshopper species and indicate that such data can be reliably used for developing reference libraries for species identification via sequence matches.http://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/article/view/214
spellingShingle N. Nazir
K. Mehmood
M. Ashfaq
J. Rahim
Morphological and molecular identification of acridid grasshoppers (Acrididae: Orthoptera) from Poonch division, Azad Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan
Journal of Threatened Taxa
title Morphological and molecular identification of acridid grasshoppers (Acrididae: Orthoptera) from Poonch division, Azad Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan
title_full Morphological and molecular identification of acridid grasshoppers (Acrididae: Orthoptera) from Poonch division, Azad Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan
title_fullStr Morphological and molecular identification of acridid grasshoppers (Acrididae: Orthoptera) from Poonch division, Azad Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan
title_full_unstemmed Morphological and molecular identification of acridid grasshoppers (Acrididae: Orthoptera) from Poonch division, Azad Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan
title_short Morphological and molecular identification of acridid grasshoppers (Acrididae: Orthoptera) from Poonch division, Azad Jammu Kashmir, Pakistan
title_sort morphological and molecular identification of acridid grasshoppers acrididae orthoptera from poonch division azad jammu kashmir pakistan
url http://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/article/view/214
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AT mashfaq morphologicalandmolecularidentificationofacrididgrasshoppersacrididaeorthopterafrompoonchdivisionazadjammukashmirpakistan
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