Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, USDA-ARS, Gainesville, FL 32608, USA.
J Insect Sci. 2011;11:154. doi: 10.1673/031.011.15401.
A critical component for sustaining adequate food production is the protection of local agriculture from invasive pest insects. Essential to this goal is the ability to accurately distinguish foreign from closely related domestic species, a process that has traditionally required identification using diagnostic morphological "keys" that can be both subtle and labor-intensive. This is the case for the Lepidopteran group of insects represented by Spodoptera, a genus of Noctuidae "armyworm" moths that includes several important agricultural pests. Two of the most destructive species, Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and S. litura (F.) are not yet established in North America. To facilitate the monitoring for these pests, the feasibility of using DNA barcoding methodology for distinguishing between domestic and foreign Spodoptera species was tested. A DNA barcoding database was derived for a subset of Spodoptera species native to Florida, with an emphasis on those attracted to pheromone blends developed for S. litura or S. littoralis. These were then compared to the barcode sequences of S. litura collected from Taiwan and S. littoralis from Portugal. Consistent discrimination of the different species was obtained with phenetic relationships produced that were generally in agreement with phylogenetic studies using morphological characteristics. The data presented here indicate that DNA barcoding has the potential to be an efficient and accurate supplement to morphological methods for the identification of invasive Spodoptera pests in North America.
维持充足粮食生产的一个关键因素是保护当地农业免受入侵性害虫的侵害。实现这一目标的关键是能够准确区分外来物种和密切相关的本地物种，传统上这一过程需要使用具有细微和劳动密集特点的诊断形态“钥匙”来进行识别。这就是以鳞翅目昆虫 Spodoptera 为代表的昆虫组的情况，Spodoptera 是 Noctuidae“行军虫”蛾类的一个属，其中包括几种重要的农业害虫。两种最具破坏性的物种 Spodoptera littoralis (Boisduval)（鳞翅目：夜蛾科）和 S. litura (F.)（鳞翅目：夜蛾科）尚未在北美建立。为了便于监测这些害虫，测试了使用 DNA 条形码方法区分本地和外国 Spodoptera 物种的可行性。从佛罗里达州本土的 Spodoptera 物种中提取了一个 DNA 条形码数据库，重点是那些对针对 S. litura 或 S. littoralis 开发的信息素混合物有吸引力的物种。然后将这些与从台湾收集的 S. litura 和从葡萄牙收集的 S. littoralis 的条形码序列进行了比较。通过产生的表型关系一致地对不同物种进行了区分，这些关系通常与使用形态特征进行的系统发育研究一致。这里提供的数据表明，DNA 条形码有可能成为北美入侵性 Spodoptera 害虫鉴定的形态学方法的有效且准确的补充。
