engleski

First results of DNA barcoding of Plecoptera (Insecta) and Pseudoscorpiones (Arachnida) in Croatia

Croatia is a biodiversity hotspot because of different habitats, climatic and hydrological features and geological history. The project CroBarFauna (DNA barcoding of biodiversity of Croatian fauna, funded by Croatian Science Foundation, IP-06-2016-988) focuses on detection and identification of animal species, especially endemic, cryptic, endangered or undescribed ones. This will help improve our understanding of biogeography and provide a base of knowledge for taxonomy, phylogenetics and phylogeography. DNA barcoding of Plecoptera and Pseudoscorpiones from 400 different localities is part of the PhD thesis of the first author. Plecoptera are the most endangered species in Croatia due to human activity (Popijač & Sivec, 2011) with 80 species recorded so far. 200 samples of Plecoptera DNA barcoded so far revealed several deeply divergent genetic lineages that may represent new species. In subfamilies Isoperlinae and Taeniopteryginae for example, two such candidates have been found for the genera Isoperla and Taeniopteryx. The former of those probably represents an endemic restricted to the small spring of the stream in Lika. Also, a few species which have already been DNA barcoded are going to be entered into the BOLD database for the first time. 99 species of Pseudoscorpiones have been recorded in Croatia so far and most of them are endemic. In last 15 years, 29 new species for science have been discovered in Croatia so it is expected that the number of newly discovered species will further increase by application of DNA barcoding (Ozimec, 2004).

DNA barcoding ; plecoptera ; pseudoscorpiones

nije evidentirano