COI-based DNA barcoding of some species of Pentatomidae from North India (Hemiptera: Heteroptera).

The family Pentatomidae is one of the largest families of the sub-order Heteroptera, comprising 4722 species belonging to 896 genera. In the present paper, we analysed a partial ∼600 bp COI sequence of 14 species of family Pentatomidae, collected from northern part of India. For seven species viz., Tolumnia antennata Distant, 1902, Cahara jugatoria (Lethierry, 1891), Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister, 1835), Plautia viridicollis (Westwood, 1837), Priassus exemptus (Walker, 1868), Dalpada neoclavata (Rider, 1998) and Dalpada affinis (Dallas, 1851), this is the first ever molecular study which has generated distinct barcodes for each. The COI sequences of these seven species have been added to the existing database at GenBank NCBI which can be used for their identification. The database analysis shows mean K2P divergence of 2.5% at intraspecific level, 11.9% at interspecific level and 16.37% at intergeneric level, thereby indicating a hierarchical increase in K2P mean divergence across different taxonomic levels.