Genetic Diversity and Phylogenetic Analysis of Lepidopteran Species by Molecular Barcoding Using Co I Gene Sequences

Lepidoptera is one of the largest orders of insects that include moths and butterflies. Most of the Lepidopterans are morphologically similar, therefore the identification of these insects is tedious using morphotaxonomy and that is detrimental in designing a better strategy to control and conserve them. These are extremely important group of ‘model’ organisms and are used to investigate many areas of biological research, including such diverse fields as navigation, pest control, embryology, mimicry, evolution, genetics, population dynamics and biodiversity conservation. The knowledge of Lepidopteran genomics will create new methods of insect pest management and will contribute to sustainable agriculture, protection of the environment and the maintenance of biodiversity. In this study we amplified cytochrome oxidase I gene of Junonia atlites for species identification and constructed phylogenetic tree for recognizing evolutionary relationship.