Burns John M, Janzen Daniel H, Hajibabaei Mehrdad, Hallwachs Winnie, Hebert Paul D N
Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 127, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Apr 29;105(17):6350-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0712181105. Epub 2008 Apr 24.
DNA barcodes can be used to identify cryptic species of skipper butterflies previously detected by classic taxonomic methods and to provide first clues to the existence of yet other cryptic species. A striking case is the common geographically and ecologically widespread neotropical skipper butterfly Perichares philetes (Lepidoptera, Hesperiidae), described in 1775, which barcoding splits into a complex of four species in Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica. Three of the species are new, and all four are described. Caterpillars, pupae, and foodplants offer better distinguishing characters than do adults, whose differences are mostly average, subtle, and blurred by intraspecific variation. The caterpillars of two species are generalist grass-eaters; of the other two, specialist palm-eaters, each of which feeds on different genera. But all of these cryptic species are more specialized in their diet than was the morphospecies that held them. The four ACG taxa discovered to date belong to a panneotropical complex of at least eight species. This complex likely includes still more species, whose exposure may require barcoding. Barcoding ACG hesperiid morphospecies has increased their number by nearly 10%, an unexpectedly high figure for such relatively well known insects.
DNA条形码可用于识别先前通过经典分类方法检测到的弄蝶科隐存种，并为其他隐存种的存在提供初步线索。一个显著的例子是常见的新热带界弄蝶Perichares philetes（鳞翅目，弄蝶科），该蝶于1775年被描述，在哥斯达黎加西北部的瓜纳卡斯特自然保护区（ACG），条形码分析将其划分为一个由四个物种组成的复合体。其中三个物种是新物种，四个物种均有描述。毛虫、蛹和食草植物比成虫提供了更好的鉴别特征，成虫的差异大多是平均的、细微的，且因种内变异而模糊不清。两个物种的毛虫以多种草类为食；另外两个物种的毛虫则以特定的棕榈树为食，且每个物种取食不同的属。但所有这些隐存种在食性上比包含它们的形态种更为特化。迄今为止在ACG发现的四个分类单元属于一个至少由八个物种组成的泛热带复合体。这个复合体可能还包括更多物种，要发现它们可能需要进行条形码分析。对ACG弄蝶科形态种进行条形码分析后，其数量增加了近10%，对于这类相对知名的昆虫来说，这是一个出乎意料的高数字。
