Identification of Invasive Pest, Plautia corossota (Green stink bug) Using DNA Barcoding

Abstract

Plautia corossota, is a Heteropteran insect belonging to family  Pentatomidae. A polyphagous insect, commonly known as  the green stink bug, or shield bug, considered as a pest, is  frequently found in and around local vegetables market of  Chennai. To learn about its biology and to precisely identify  the exact species, a specimen was collected from local  terrain of Chennai. This insect is cosmopolitan is  distribution, and is a serious pest known to infest almost all  of the vegetable, fruit and commercial crops. No specific  insecticide or effective pest management strategies are in  place till date, probably due to obscure identification of pest  species. This insect is polymorphous, and its identification  simply based upon morphological features, may result in  ambiguous, conclusions, and so a more scientific method,  may be employed to ascertain its identity. Precise  identification, of the insect pest is the key for developing  pest management strategies, and so DNA barcoding was  used for specific identification. The mitochondrial CoI was  amplified using corresponding forward and reverse  primers, and the query sequence was submitted to  Genbank. (ID MF125272). Its relationship with other species  of Pentatomidae, was ascertained, by constructing a  Phylogenetic tree using the software MEGA, 5.2. Bootstarp  values, using 500 replicates, were found to be 99% match  with species such as Nezaraviridula voucher, Plautia crossota  isolate U4c, Plautia crossota voucher ROPletc; of other green  stink bugs. Tajima neutrality test D value was found to be  1.3, suggesting that the selection of this stink bug (Plautia corossota) was balanced.