Although 160,000 species of butterflies and moths are known today, scientists believe a similar number remain undiscovered.
Identifying and classifying these species based on appearance is inherently difficult, particularly as each possesses a caterpillar and butterfly form.
However, a new study to identify butterfly species in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula has shown that a form of DNA analysis known as “barcoding” can be effective in this effort.
About 570 species in the Nymphalidae butterfly family have been reported in Mexico, 121 of which occur in the Yucatan peninsula.
DNA barcoding involves analyzing a sequence of a standard short gene segment to probe biodiversity.
This technique enables scientists to identify any life history stage by matching barcode results from unknown caterpillars with an already existing barcode library of known adult specimens, according to the study authors.
Using DNA barcoding, the researchers found four cases of misidentified species, initially classified based upon morphology, that were corrected based on DNA.
They also discovered eight specimens with “substantial sequence divergence”, which suggests possible unidentified or “cryptic” species that must now wait to be characterized based upon morphology to determine their status.
“Aside from confirming its effectiveness in species identification, we emphasize the utility of barcode analysis on the curation of natural history collections,” the researchers wrote in their study.
The researchers note that developing barcode reference libraries at regional levels would be valuable in further research as local environmental factors are responsible for endemic species.
“Mexico is such a heterogeneous landscape that it will not be surprising if future barcode studies discover many new cryptic species,” they wrote in the paper.
The study was published in the online journal PLoS ONE on Nov. 16.
