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In the dark in a large urban park: DNA barcodes illuminate cryptic and introduced moth species

Biodiversity and Conservation volume 18, pages 3825–3839 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

To facilitate future assessments of diversity following disturbance events, we conducted a first level inventory of nocturnal Lepidoptera in Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada. To aid the considerable task, we employed high-throughput DNA barcoding for the rough sorting of all material and for tentative species identifications, where possible. We report the preliminary species list of 190, the detection of four new exotic species (Argyresthia pruniella, Dichelia histrionana, Paraswammerdamia lutarea, and Prays fraxinella), and the potential discovery of two cryptic species. We describe the magnitude of assistance that barcoding presents for faunal inventories, from reducing specialist time to facilitating the detection of native and exotic species at low density.

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Acknowledgments

Funding was provided by a Forest Investment Account—Forest Science Program Student Grant, an NSERC Graduate Scholarship, and an NSERC-RBCM Systematics Research Graduate Supplement (to JRD). Additional support was provided by the Canadian Barcode of Life Network from Genome Canada through the Ontario Genomics Institute, NSERC (to LMH), and other sponsors listed at http://www.bolnet.ca. Field collecting was supported by grants from the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency and Vancouver Parks and Recreation. We wish to thank Allison Shaver (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) for slide preparation and photography, as well as the staff at the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding for their assistance with genetic analysis. We are also grateful to Claudia Copley (RBCM), Karen Needham (UBCZ) and Jane Seed (PFCA) for assistance with specimen deposition, Jason Dombroskie and Lisa Lumley (University of Alberta) for assistance with the tortricid identifications, and two anonymous reviewers for useful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Sciences, Forestry Sciences Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Jeremy R. deWaard, Jennifer Derhousoff, John A. McLean & Leland M. Humble

  2. Royal British Columbia Museum, Entomology, 675 Belleville Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 9W2, Canada

    Jeremy R. deWaard

  3. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, K.W. Neatby Bldg., 960 Carling Ave., Ottawa, ON, K1A 0C6, Canada

    Jean-François Landry

  4. Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, K.W. Neatby Bldg., 960 Carling Ave., Ottawa, ON, K1A 0C6, Canada

    B. Christian Schmidt

  5. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre, 506 West Burnside Road, Victoria, BC, V8Z 1M5, Canada

    Leland M. Humble

Authors
  1. Jeremy R. deWaard
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  2. Jean-François Landry
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  3. B. Christian Schmidt
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  4. Jennifer Derhousoff
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  5. John A. McLean
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  6. Leland M. Humble
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeremy R. deWaard.

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deWaard, J.R., Landry, JF., Schmidt, B.C. et al. In the dark in a large urban park: DNA barcodes illuminate cryptic and introduced moth species. Biodivers Conserv 18, 3825–3839 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9682-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-009-9682-7

Keywords

  • Biodiversity inventory
  • COI
  • Cryptic species
  • Cytochrome oxidase 1
  • DNA barcodes
  • Introduced species
  • Invasive species
  • Lepidoptera
  • Stanley Park
  • Taxonomic impediment