Taxacom: Barcodes and species

[markcost at gmail.com]

Dear John,
I recall but do not have the paper of some Drosophila species in Hawaii that
were unmistakably morphologically different species but had the same COI
gene. Outside insects, I have been reliably told that some other animals
taxa (Cnidarians?) have little variation in this gene. Some genes vary more
and some less between species and higher taxa.
Best regards
Mark 

-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of Marko Prous via
Taxacom
Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2024 4:30 PM
To: taxacom at lists.ku.edu
Subject: Re: Taxacom: Barcodes and species

Dear John,

It's possible to have identical barcodes (mitochondrial COI fragment)
between species, which can be quite common in some groups (sawflies), rare
in Lepidoptera. You should check also few nuclear genes (or maybe even just
one might be enough). If these correlate with morphological differences,
good chance that these are different species despite of identical
mitochondrial barcodes.

Occasional hybridization or incomplete lineage sorting can explain this, but
if nuclear genes clearly separate the species, mitochondrial introgression
would be more likely explanation (mitochondrial DNA evolves faster than
nuclear DNA).

cheers,
Marko

On 5/19/24 09:07, John Grehan via Taxacom wrote:
> As I am pretty ignorant of technical details of species designation 
> and barcode identity, I would be grateful for any feedback on whether 
> it is possible for two 'species' to have identical 'barcodes' (never 
> liked that label with its essentialist connotations).
>
> I have a colleague who has collected some ghost moths from the same 
> date and location. There are two morphs - for simplicity 'white spot' 
> and 'plain'. Dissections of genitalia also show differences, with the 
> white spot and plain each showing consistent differences, although 
> only 2 specimens for white spot and 3 for plain. Even with this small 
> sample I am kind of intrigued that the external difference matches the 
> internal difference.
>
> The genitalic differences are prominent enough that I would normally 
> view them as indicative of species difference. Perhaps there is a 
> single polymorphic species, but correlated external and internal 
> differences were a bit of a surprise. Any comments or enlightenment would
be very welcome.
>
> Cheers, John
>

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