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DNA barcoding of Croatian butterflies - preliminary results

In 2017 we started a 4-year project of DNA barcoding of Croatian biodiversity (CroBarFauna) funded by the Croatian Science Foundation with primary goal to study the amount and geographic distribution of the genetic diversity of selected groups of Croatian fauna using DNA barcoding methodology, flagging species for further taxonomic, phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies. The aim for the Lepidoptera group is to provide the DNA barcode library of 198 species of Croatian butterflies. In the last decades, our work has been attempted to collect and create a national database of distribution records in Croatia to publish the national checklist and the red list of butterflies. Today it is clear that collecting has been sporadic and uneven making our work in finding certain species hard. Until now, we managed to barcode 298 specimens belonging to 123 species. A few taxa share DNA barcodes and within few species we found higher intraspecific divergences. While majority of butterflies can be easily recognised using morphological features, identifying some taxa is still challenging and DNA barcoding is helping the right identification thus gathering distribution data and helping in developing conservation plans for about 25% of Croatia’s butterfly fauna considered of conservation concern. Establishment of national database of genetic biodiversity will contribute to the global level and enriching international data basis (BOLD and GenBank) with DNA barcodes of not yet represented taxa and taxa from this underrepresented geographic region.

butterflies ; Croatia ; DNA barcoding

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