Moving toward species-level phylogeny using ribosomal DNA and COI barcodes: an example from the diverse caddisfly genus Chimarra (Trichoptera: Philopotamidae)

Abstract

The genus Chimarra (Trichoptera, Philopotamidae) is a cosmopolitan genus with over 700 species. The taxonomic history of Chimarra is discussed, with reference to how large genera are best subdivided. We also examine the phylogenetic utility of the COI “barcode” fragment and find it to be phylogenetically useful, within limits. Adding a single fragment of nuclear rRNA (specifically the 28S D2 region) converts the barcode hypothesis into a strongly supported phylogeny that is corroborated by a morphologically derived subgeneric classification. This suggests that a simple two gene dataset could be combined with morphological data in order to rapidly and inexpensively include a molecular component to generic revisions. We confirm the monophyly of Chimarra (Chimarra), C. (Curgia), C. (Otarrha), and core C. (Chimarrita). The C. (C.) tsudai group is also recovered. We make use of web-based materials, including the BOLD website (http://www.boldsystems.org/), and keyhole markup language files (.kml format), which permit specimen data to be viewed on Google Earth. We suggest that static phylogenies presented in print could be dynamically updated with the use of these web materials.