A revolutionary protocol to describe understudied hyperdiverse taxa and overcome the taxonomic impediment

Abstract

Here we elucidate and justify a DNA barcode approach to insect species description that can be applied to name tens of thousands of species of Ichneumonoidea and many other species-rich taxa. Each description consists of a lateral habitus image of the specimen, a COI barcode diagnosis, and the holotype specimen information required by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. We believe this approach, or a slight modification of it, will be useful for many other underdescribed hyperdiverse taxa, especially in the tropics. Due to the extreme species-richness of the Ichneumonoidea, the very low percentage of described species, and the lack of detailed biological information for most described species, the standard taxonomic approach is inefficient and overwhelmingly time consuming. A DNA barcode-based approach to initial description will provide a solid foundation of species hypotheses from which more comprehensive descriptions can be developed as other data, time, and budgets permit. Here we elucidate this view and detailed methodology that can generally be applied to species-rich underdescribed taxa. A real example is given by describing species in two genera, Hemichoma and Zelomorpha, reared from the área de Conservación Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica. The generic type species Zelomorpha arizonensis is given a DNA barcode diagnosis and the following new species are described: Zelomorpha angelsolisi, Zelomorpha bobandersoni, Zelomorpha danjohnsoni, Zelomorpha donwindsori, Zelomorpha effugia, Zelomorpha johnchemsaki, Zelomorpha kellyanneae, Zelomorpha larrykirkendalli, Zelomorpha mariyavladmirovnae, Zelomorpha mikeiviei, Zelomorpha myricagaleae, Zelomorpha noahjaneae, Zelomorpha paulgoldsteini, Zelomorpha terryerwini, Zelomorpha willsflowersi, Hemichoma donwhiteheadi, Hemichoma frankhovorei, and Hemichoma johnkingsolveri.