Molecular identification of members of the Megaselia brevior complex (Diptera: Phoridae) in northwest of Iran

The scuttle flies (Diptera: Phoridae) are global insects with forensic, medical and agricultural importance. Members of the Megaselia brevior complex are tiny flies which characterized by a naked mesopleuron, reduced costa vein and by the pale yellow colored haltere knob. Ten species of this group have been recorded from the Palaearctic region so far, but there are also several resemble species requiring careful identification. Our knowledge of phorid fauna is generally limited throughout the world, especially in Iran.Objectives: to address molecular characteristics of M. brevior complex in Iran.MethodsAdult specimens were collected using the Malaise trap and a standard insect collecting net from East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan and Ardabil provinces during 2010-2018. The flies preserved in 75% ethanol and then identified using valid keys (Disney 1989, 2006) based on genitalia characters mounted on the slides. The materials including either insect whole bodies or mounted slides were deposited in the Insect Collection of Professor Hasan Maleki Milani, Tabriz, Iran (ICHMM) and in the University of Cambridge, Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, England (UCMZ), respectively. Representatives of morphologically verified specimens were subjected to molecular identification using mtDNA-COI gene sequence analysis.Herein four members of M. brevior complex namely M. brevior (Schmitz) (n=130), M. oxybelorum Schmitz (n=87), M. angustiata Schmitz (n=58) and M. brevicostalis (Wood) (n=346) were collected from eight locations of three studied provinces. They showed multiple shared characters and morphologically discriminated only by restricted characters on the genitalia. Molecular analysis revealed remarkably high sequence diversity among studied species as synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions. The percent identity values for four pairwise comparisons of nucleotide sequence alignments ranged from 89.24 to 90.71% which indicate their distantly relatedness.DiscussionPhorid flies are a large group of small insects which play central roles in the biological sciences. Some of them are associated with fossorial Hymenoptera as parasitoids, kleptoparasites or predators. Consequently accurate species identification is an important issue for the successful management of conservation efforts. The results of this study indicate that the highly variable sequence of mtDNA-COI gene can provide rapid and accurate identification of species of M. brevior complex

کلیدواژه ها:

Scuttle flies ، Megaselia brevior complex ، COI ، kleptoparasite ، Iran