Phylogenetic Insights into Sitona Germar, 1817 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) through DNA Barcoding of the COI Gene

Abstract

Sitona Germar is a large genus in the family Curculionidae, comprising approximately 100 species. However, recent revisions of subgenera or species groups classifications are lacking, making it difficult to compare newly discovered species with previously described ones. In this study, we performed a molecular phylogenetic analysis based on the COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) gene to assess the validity of the traditional groupings within the genus Sitona. A total of 23 species were analyzed, 14 of them were collected in the eastern and southern regions of Türkiye: S. callosus Gyllenhal, S. concavirostris Hochhuth, S. cylindricollis Fåhraeus, S. fairmairei Allard, S. hispidulus (Fabricius), Sitona humeralis Stephens, S. lateralis Gyllenhal, S. lineatus (Linnaeus), S. lividipes Fåhraeus, S. longulus Gyllenhal, S. macularius (Marsham), S. obsoletus (Gmelin), S. puncticollis Stephens and S. sulcifrons Thunberg. In addition, nine species were incorporated from GenBank records: S. ambiguus Gyllenhal, S. brucki Allard, S. discoideus Gyllenhal, S. languidus Gyllenhal, S. striatellus Gyllenhal, S. suturalis Stephens and S. waterhousei Walton. Two outgroup taxa, Coelositona latipennis (Gyllenhal) and C. limosus (Rossi), were also included in the analysis. Phylogenetic reconstruction was performed using the Maximum Parsimony method with 1000 bootstrap replicates, implemented with Geneious Prime (2024.0.7) and the PAUP 4.0a plug-in. The resulting phylogram grouped the analyzed species into four distinct clusters, which was inconsistent with Reitter’s previous classification of Sitona. The traditional morphological characters used in the taxonomy of the genus are briefly reviewed, and a new species grouping framework is proposed.

Keywords

• Molecular phylogeny
• Species identification
• Insect systematics
• Genetic divergence
• Türkiye

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