DNA barcoding and relationships of eight ladybugs species (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) that infesting several crops from Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

Ladybugs (family: Coccinellidae) are well known for their role as biological control agents in ecosystems, however some types can be serious pests and cause damage to many important crops. The first ever DNA Barcode of eight ladybug species (Coccinellidae) namely Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata, Henosepilachna kaszabi, Micraspis discolor, Heteroneda reticulata, Chilocorus nigritus, Cheilomenes sexmaculata, Coelophora inaequalis and Coccinella transversalis from Malaysia successfully presented in this study. It has been collected in the field, known and act as biological control agents for serious pests that cause damage to several important crops. From this study, the interactions are refers to the ladybugs species as predator and its host plant family namely solanaceae, moraceae, malvaceae, convolvulaceae and rutaceae. The relationships among ladybugs species has been estimated and visualized using phylogenetic analyses of Neighbor Joining (NJ), Maximum Parsimony (MP), and Bayesian Inference (BI) with Cassidinae sp. as an outgroup. All resulted trees generated produced more or less similar with Coccinellinae (five genera) were found monophyletic (lowly supported, 0.57 posterior probability (pp)), while Chilochorinae were paraphyletic. However Scymninae (2 genera, 0.87pp) and Epilachninae (1 genus, 1.00pp) were also monophyletic. The information on the ladybugs species and its host plants is very important and crucial in managing strategy on the pest infestation, which requires details for food and host preferences in their tritrophic interaction.