Identification of Cotesia Parasitoid Wasps by Molecular Markers
Sun Xingxing
Wang Fan
Jiang Yingjie
Wang Kai
Hu Jixiang
Li Hongyang
Gu Huiling
Zhang Lisheng
Abstract：Parasitoid wasps of the genus Cotesia(Hymenoptera:Braconidae)represent an important group of biological control agents that effectively suppress a variety of agricultural and forestry pests,including Hyphantria cunea,Plutella xylostella,Spodoptera exigua and so on.However,species within this genus are morphologically similar and include several cryptic and closely related taxa,posing challenges for accurate species identification.In this study,Cotesia specimens collected from peach orchards in coastal area of Jiangsu Province were taxonomically examined,and five species were identified as C.ruficrus,C.vestalis,C.chilonis,C.glomerata,and Cotesia sp1.To evaluate the accuracy of species delimitation,mitochondrial cytochrome oxi-dase subunit I(COI)and nuclear 28S rDNA fragments were employed as molecular markers.The results re-vealed that the COI gene provided higher resolution and accuracy for species-level identification,with molecu-lar results fully consistent with morphological diagnoses.In contrast,the 28S rDNA gene exhibited limited dis-criminatory power among closely related Cotesia species,leading to inconsistencies with morphological classifi-cation.Overall,it was suggested the COI gene could be selected for species identification of the genus Cotesia.
Keywords：DNA barcodingCotesia parasitioid waspsCOI28S rDNAIdentificationBiological con-trolMolecular markers
Publication Date：2025-11-30
Online Publishing Date：2026-05-22(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：7( 127-133 )