In the dark in a large urban park: DNA barcodes illuminate cryptic and introduced moth species. Biodiversity and Conservation
deWaard, J.R., Landry, J.-F., Schmidt, B.C., Derhousoff, J., McLean, J.A. and Humble, L.M. (2009). In the dark in a large urban park: DNA barcodes illuminate cryptic and introduced moth species. Biodiversity and Conservation 18:3825–3839. [full text pdf] [website]
Abstract: To facilitate future assessments of diversity following disturbance events, we conducted a first level inventory of nocturnal Lepidoptera in Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada. To aid the considerable task, we employed high-throughput DNA barcoding for the rough sorting of all material and for tentative species identifications, where possible. We report the preliminary species list of 190, the detection of four new exotic species (Argyresthia pruniella, Dichelia histrionana, Paraswammerdamia lutarea, and Prays fraxinella), and the potential discovery of two cryptic species. We describe the magnitude of assistance that barcoding presents for faunal inventories, from reducing specialist time to facilitating the detection of native and exotic species at low density.
Delayed recognition of the European poplar shoot borer, Gypsonoma aceriana (Duponchel) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in Canada. Journal of the Entomological Society of BC.
Humble, L.M., deWaard, J.R., and Quinn, M. (2009). Delayed recognition of the European poplar shoot borer, Gypsonoma aceriana (Duponchel) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in Canada. Journal of the Entomological Society of BC 106: 61-70 [abstract pdf] [full text pdf]
Abstract: The long-term presence of Gypsonoma aceriana (Duponchel) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Olethreutinae), a European shoot-boring pest of poplars, was discovered in British Columbia during examination of cytochrome c oxidase I sequences of voucher specimens deposited in the Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre, arthropod reference collection. Originally identified as a species of Epiblema, G. aceriana was first recovered in BC in 1980, almost 20 years before it was reported in Washington State. DNA barcodes from both larval and adult collections are demonstrated to be conspecific with an adult collection from Great Britain. Preliminary surveys of early and late instar larval feeding damage in southwestern British Columbia demonstrate that this shoot borer is established on southern Vancouver Island and throughout the lower mainland of the province. The eastern-most collections made to date include locations near Yale in the Fraser Canyon, from the lower Coquihalla River watershed and from Hope.
