bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/799221; this version posted October 9, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. 1 DNA Barcoding of fogged caterpillars in Peru: A novel approach for 2 unveiling host-plant relationships of tropical moths (Insecta, 3 Lepidoptera) 4 5 Axel Hausmann1*, Juliane Diller1, Jerome Moriniere1,3, Amelie Höcherl1, Andreas 6 Floren2, Gerhard Haszprunar1 7 8 1 SNSB-Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Germany, 2 Julius Maximilians Universität, 9 Würzburg, Germany, 3 Advanced Identification Methods GmbH, München, Germany 10 *
[email protected] 11 12 Short title: 13 DNA Barcoding of fogged caterpillars in Peru: unveiling host-plant relationships of tropical 14 moths bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/799221; this version posted October 9, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY 4.0 International license. 16 Abstract 17 A total of 130 lepidopteran larvae were selected from 37 fogging samples at the Panguana 18 station, district Yuyapichis, province Puerto Inca, department Huánuco, Peru. Target trees 19 were pre-identified and subsequently submitted to molecular confirmation of identity with 20 three markers (rbcL, psbA and trnL-F). Identification of 119 lepidopteran larvae (92 species) 21 was successful through DNA barcoding: Comparison of COI barcodes with the reference 22 database of adult moths resulted in 65 (55%) matches at species level, 32 (27%) at genus level 23 and 19 (16%) at subfamily or family level.