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Species Delimitation in the Bark Louse Genus Neostenopsocus Liang & Liu, 2024 (Psocodea: Stenopsocidae) Based on DNA Barcoding
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Key Laboratory of Economic Crops Genetic Improvement and Integrated Utilization, School of Life and Health Sciences, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China
2
State Key Laboratory of Animal Biodiversity Conservation and Integrated Pest Management, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
3
Department of Entomology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Insects 2025, 16(11), 1147; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16111147 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 29 September 2025
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Revised: 3 November 2025
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Accepted: 6 November 2025
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Published: 9 November 2025
(This article belongs to the Section Insect Systematics, Phylogeny and Evolution)
Simple Summary
Bark lice are common in terrestrial ecosystems, yet the poor taxonomic study of them renders species identification difficult. In this study, we investigated the species identification of the bark louse genus Neostenopsocus using DNA barcodes (675 bp fragment of the mitochondrial COI gene). We examined newly collected specimens and the type materials of some valid species of Neostenopsocus, redescribing 13 valid species and proposing 39 new synonyms. A total of 110 sequences of Neostenopsocus species were obtained from newly collected specimens and public data. The results show that the COI barcode is sufficient to distinguish most Neostenopsocus species, whereas more molecular marks and distribution data are necessary to identify the closely similar species.
Abstract
The family Stenopsocidae exhibits a rich biodiversity in China, yet species identification based on morphological characters remains problematic due to insufficient study and absent molecular data. DNA barcoding has been widely employed for rapid species identification in insects, particularly through standardized COI gene sequencing. In this study, we conducted species delimitation for Neostenopsocus in China based on the morphological characters and DNA barcodes, comprising 20 morphological species with 110 barcodes. We redescribed 13 species from China and proposed 39 new synonyms. This study supports the applicability of DNA barcoding for species identification in Neostenopsocus. The K2P distance between the morphological species of Neostenopsocus ranges from 0.0051 to 0.2040, with most exceeding 0.10. The maximum intraspecific divergence reaches 0.0778 in N. nepalensis. The external morphology of Neostenopsocus shows considerable structural uniformity, and the genitalia provide limited diagnostic value for species identification. Instead, the marking patterns of the head and forewing are considered to be useful for species identification. Therefore, delimiting closely related species demands an integrated taxonomy approach that combines extensive geographical sampling, detailed morphological analysis, and nuclear DNA data.
Keywords:
COI gene; genetic distance; Psocoptera; psocids; species identification
