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Historic DNA for taxonomy and conservation: A case-study of a century-old Hawaiian hawkmoth type (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae)
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2017-03-08
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2017-03-08
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phylogenetics
islands
museum collections
taxonomy
moths and butterflies
mitochondria
animal wings
species extinction
islands
museum collections
taxonomy
moths and butterflies
mitochondria
animal wings
species extinction
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Abstract
Analysing historic DNA from museum specimens offers the unique opportunity to study the molecular systematics and phylogenetics of rare and possibly extinct taxa. In the Hawaiian fauna, the hawkmoth, Hyles calida calida, occurs on several of the main islands and is quite frequent, whereas Hyles c. hawaiiensis is restricted to the Island of Hawaii where it appears to be very rare. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences shows that Hyles c. hawaiiensis differs from the nominotypical subspecies by an average p-distance of 2.8%, which is of a similar order of magnitude to that found between other species of Hyles, suggesting that Hyles c. hawaiiensis should perhaps be awarded species status, although more data are required for a formal taxonomic revision. Given the rarity of this taxon, these analyses should be undertaken urgently so that conservation measures can be implemented before it becomes extinct.
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Copyright: © 2017 Hundsdoerfer, Kitching. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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1932-6203
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1932-6203
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openAccess