Bio-surveillance of economically important insect pests in a mixed-crop agriculture system: insights from DNA barcodes.

Existence of variable life stages and body sizes and morphotypes in insects is a challenge in morphological identification, therefore making DNA-barcoding a popular tool for resolving taxonomic cues which support as identification references. Insects associated with agriculture could be pests, disease-vectors or beneficial organisms, therefore, have a significant impact in global agricultural trade. Developing information libraries or databases of such insect species is vital for the purpose of plant quarantine regulatory functions. The study was conducted to detect and identify insect fauna associated with an export oriented mixed crop agriculture system in Sri Lanka. A total of 214 specimens were collected which summed to 162 unique taxa confirmed with DNA-barcodes of 658 base pair fragment in COI gene, using LCO1490/HCO2198 primers. A total of 117 taxa were delimited to the species (78-previously recorded, 39-newly-recorded dring this study) and the rest were delimited to genus, family or order (35- previously recorded, 11- newly-recorded during this study). DNA-barcodes and the non-destructed specimens were deposited in the DNA barcode library and specimen collection consecutively established at the NPQS, Sri Lanka to facilitate future diagnostic activities.