Molecular Phylogeny of Some Cinara Species (Hemiptera: Aphidoidae) Feeding on Cupressaceae Species in Turkey

Abstract

Cinara species feed on conifers of the families Cupressaceae and Pinaceae and it has been shown that host plant plays crucial role on diversity of this genus. Cinara (Cinara) juniperensis, C. (Cupressobium) cupressi and C. (Cupressobium) tujafilina species infesting Juniperus sp., Cupressus sp. and Plathycladus sp., respectively were studied. It is difficult to distinguish these species properly based on morphological identification key due to high amount of morphological similarities. In this study, partial sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene were used to identify and to reveal phylogenetic relationships of determined Cinara species. Intraspecific and interspecific distinctions were 0.2% -2.2% and 2.5%-7.8% for three species of Cinara, respectively. The topology of the tree showed closer relationship between C. tujafilina and C. cupressi (95-96 % bootstrap) while C. juniperensis showed lower similarity with them. Phylogenetic tree inferred from both Maximum parsimony and Neighbour joining analyses revealed that C. tujafilina and C. cupressi were mon.