@article {451,
	title = {DNA barcode accumulation curves for understudied taxa and areas.},
	journal = {Molecular ecology resources},
	volume = {9 Suppl s1},
	year = {2009},
	pages = {208-16},
	abstract = {Frequently, the diversity of umbrella taxa is invoked to predict patterns of other, less well-known, life. However, the utility of this strategy has been questioned. We tested whether a phylogenetic diversity (PD) analysis of CO1 DNA barcodes could act as a proxy for standard methods of determining sampling efficiency within and between sites, namely that an accumulation curve of barcode diversity would be similar to curves generated using morphology or nuclear genetic markers. Using taxa at the forefront of the taxonomic impediment - parasitoid wasps (Ichneumonidae, Braconidae, Cynipidae and Diapriidae), contrasted with a taxon expected to be of low diversity (Formicidae) from an area where total diversity is expected to be low (Churchill, Manitoba), we found that barcode accumulation curves based on PD were significantly different in both slope and scale from curves generated using names based on morphological data, while curves generated using nuclear genetic data were only different in scale. We conclude that these differences clearly identify the taxonomic impediment within the strictly morphological alpha-taxonomy of these hyperdiverse insects. The absence of an asymptote within the barcode PD trend of parasitoid wasps reflects the as yet incomplete sampling of the site (and more accurately its total diversity), while the morphological analysis asymptote represents a collision with the taxonomic impediment rather than complete sampling. We conclude that a PD analysis of standardized DNA barcodes can be a transparent and reproducible triage tool for the management and conservation of species and spaces.},
	keywords = {2009, accepted 27 january 2009, Braconidae, churchill, co1, cynipidae, cytochrome c oxidase 1, diapriidae, formicidae, Ichneumonidae, manitoba, phylogenetic diversity, received 22 october 2008, revision received 16 january, species abundance curve, triage},
	author = {Smith, M Alex and Fernandez-Triana, J.L. and Roughley, Rob and Hebert, Paul D N}
}
@article {452,
	title = {Extreme diversity of tropical parasitoid wasps exposed by iterative integration of natural history, DNA barcoding, morphology, and collections.},
	journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
	volume = {105},
	year = {2008},
	pages = {12359-12364},
	abstract = {We DNA barcoded 2,597 parasitoid wasps belonging to 6 microgastrine braconid genera reared from parapatric tropical dry forest, cloud forest, and rain forest in Area de Conservaci{\'o}n Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica and combined these data with records of caterpillar hosts and morphological analyses. We asked whether barcoding and morphology discover the same provisional species and whether the biological entities revealed by our analysis are congruent with wasp host specificity. Morphological analysis revealed 171 provisional species, but barcoding exposed an additional 142 provisional species; 95\% of the total is likely to be undescribed. These 313 provisional species are extraordinarily host specific; more than 90\% attack only 1 or 2 species of caterpillars out of more than 3,500 species sampled. The most extreme case of overlooked diversity is the morphospecies Apanteles leucostigmus. This minute black wasp with a distinctive white wing stigma was thought to parasitize 32 species of ACG hesperiid caterpillars, but barcoding revealed 36 provisional species, each attacking one or a very few closely related species of caterpillars. When host records and/or within-ACG distributions suggested that DNA barcoding had missed a species-pair, or when provisional species were separated only by slight differences in their barcodes, we examined nuclear sequences to test hypotheses of presumptive species boundaries and to further probe host specificity. Our iterative process of combining morphological analysis, ecology, and DNA barcoding and reiteratively using specimens maintained in permanent collections has resulted in a much more fine-scaled understanding of parasitoid diversity and host specificity than any one of these elements could have produced on its own.},
	keywords = {Animals, Automatic Data Processing, biodiversity, Costa Rica, Data Collection, Data Collection: methods, DNA, Genes, Host-Parasite Interactions, Insect, lepidoptera, Lepidoptera: parasitology, Molecular Sequence Data, Morphogenesis, Natural History, Parasites, Wasps, Wasps: classification, Wasps: genetics},
	author = {Smith, M Alex and Rodriguez, J.J. and Whitfield, J.B. and Deans, A.R. and Janzen, D.H. and Hallwachs, Winnie and Hebert, Paul D N}
}
@article {427,
	title = {Molecular analysis of parasitoid linkages (MAPL): gut contents of adult parasitoid wasps reveal larval host.},
	journal = {Molecular ecology},
	volume = {20},
	year = {2011},
	pages = {179-186},
	abstract = {Metamorphosing insects often have complex and poorly known life histories. In particular, what they feed on during their larval stages remains unknown for the vast majority of species, and its documentation only results from difficult and time-intensive field observations, rearing or dissections. Through the application of a DNA analysis of gut contents in adult parasitoid wasps, we were able to selectively sequence a diagnostic DNA marker that permitted the identification of the host used by these wasps during their larval stages. By reproducing these results in species with different life histories, we excluded other potential sources of host DNA, confirming that after ingestion by the parasitoid larva the host DNA can persist through metamorphosis in the abdominal contents of the adult wasp. Our discovery considerably extends the applicability of molecular analysis of gut contents by enabling the documentation of food used by insects during their larval stages and thus increasing the accuracy and precision of food web studies. The 24\% success rate of our approach is surprisingly high considering the challenging context for host DNA preservation, and we discuss the factors possibly affecting this rate. We propose molecular analysis of parasitoid linkages (MAPL) as a new method to document host-parasitoid associations at a faster pace and with unrivalled precision. Because of the key regulatory role of parasitoid wasps in ecosystems, which makes them the most commonly used biological control agents, MAPL will have immediate applications in both basic and applied biological sciences.},
	keywords = {Animals, Biological, Food Chain, Host-Parasite Interactions, Larva, Larva: physiology, lepidoptera, Lepidoptera: genetics, Lepidoptera: parasitology, Lepidoptera: physiology, Pest Control, phylogeny, Wasps, Wasps: physiology},
	author = {Rougerie, Rodolphe and Smith, M Alex and Fernandez-Triana, J.L. and Lopez-Vaamonde, Carlos and Ratnasingham, Sujeevan and Hebert, Paul D N}
}
@article {341,
	title = {Molecular detection of trophic links in a complex insect host-parasitoid food web},
	journal = {Molecular ecology resources},
	volume = {11},
	year = {2011},
	pages = {786-794},
	abstract = {Previously, host-parasitoid links have been unveiled almost exclusively by time-intensive rearing, while molecular methods were used only in simple agricultural host-parasitoid systems in the form of species-specific primers. Here, we present a general method for the molecular detection of these links applied to a complex caterpillar-parasitoid food web from tropical rainforest of Papua New Guinea. We DNA barcoded hosts, parasitoids and their tissue remnants and matched the sequences to our extensive library of local species. We were thus able to match 87\% of host sequences and 36\% of parasitoid sequences to species and infer subfamily or family in almost all cases. Our analysis affirmed 93 hitherto unknown trophic links between 37 host species from a wide range of Lepidoptera families and 46 parasitoid species from Hymenoptera and Diptera by identifying DNA sequences for both the host and the parasitoid involved in the interaction. Molecular detection proved especially useful in cases where distinguishing host species in caterpillar stage was difficult morphologically, or when the caterpillar died during rearing. We have even detected a case of extreme parasitoid specialization in a pair of Choreutis species that do not differ in caterpillar morphology and ecology. Using the molecular approach outlined here leads to better understanding of parasitoid host specificity, opens new possibilities for rapid surveys of food web structure and allows inference of species associations not already anticipated.},
	keywords = {cytochrome oxidase I, diptera, Hymenoptera, immature stages, lepidoptera, Papua New Guinea},
	author = {Hrcek, Jan and Miller, S.E. and Quicke, D.L.J. and Smith, M Alex}
}
