Expanding the frontiers of the All-Leps initiative: Barcoding the Butterflies of Argentina

CECILIA KOPUCHIAN; EZEQUIEL NUÑEZ BUSTOS; PABLO D. LAVINIA; DARÍO A. LIJTMAER; NATALIA C. GARCÍA; PABLO L. TUBARO

Kunming

Congreso; Fifth International Barcode of Life Conference; 2013

Although almost half of the existing DNA barcode sequences correspond to lepidopterans, the species from southern South America are poorly represented. Since December 2010, the Argentine Museum of Natural Science (MACN) is participating in the global initiative that is generating the barcodes of the worldwide Lepidoptera species. In this context, we have generated more than 1900 COI sequences from 400 species of Butterflies, representing more than the 30% of the diurnal lepidopterans from Argentina. The mean intraspecific genetic variability was 0.5%, while the mean divergence between congeneric species was close to 6%, suggesting that DNA barcodes are very efficient for the identification of the Argentinean butterflies species. We detected several cases with high intraspecific genetic variability in COI, some of which present genetic structure. These species were flagged as interesting cases to be studied more deeply. Moreover, as a consequence of the intense collecting field work that we have been carrying on, we have registered species that nowadays are rare or even not previously cited for Argentina. Apart from the genetic database that is being assembled, this greatly contributes to the generation of a very valuable collection for the study of the Lepidoptera of southern South America.