Molecular identification of seven new Zygopteran genera from South China through partial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene

Abstract The study was carried out in eight provinces of China, with 16 different localities. A total of 150 adult damselflies were collected for the study from the area. Mitochondrial (COI) was the target gene to sequence from all 51 representative samples of the entire collection. From the resulted sequences, ten species belonging to seven genera and four families were identified. The families are Calopterygidae, Coenagrinidae, Chlorocyphidae and Devadattiade. After alignment through BioEdit v6, MEGA7 was used for phylogenetic tree construction as well as the calculation of genetic divergence, whereas genetic diversity was calculated by DnaSP v5. All species from the respective families had clustered together within the groups, but divided into sub-groups. Maximum genetic divergence (9.31%) was found in the genus Rhinocypha, followed by Hetaerina with (8.23%), while, minimum divergence was observed for the genus Ceriagrion (0.32%) followed by Ischnura (0.48%). However, significant genetic diversity was found for all sequences at 346 mutations confirmed by two tests, Tajima's D and Fu's Fs. Maximum genetic diversity among genera was also observed, the genus Hetaerina has maximum genetic diversity (181 mutations) followed by Rhinocypha (68 mutations) while minimum genetic diversity was observed for the genus Ceriagrion followed by Ischnura. The presented results showed a higher diversity of damselflies in the south China regions.