Preliminary assessment of COI and ITS1 sequence variation in Fullers rose weevil

Abstract

Fullers rose weevil (FRW) Naupactus cervinus has recently become a pest of kiwifruit in New Zealand because export fruit infested with FRW eggs do not meet Japanese quarantine standards Studies of FRW population genetics could be useful for (i) deducing the number and geographic sources of FRW introductions to New Zealand (ii) matching New Zealand FRW populations with appropriate strains of biological control agents and (iii) differentiating FRW from other closely related species which may be difficult to separate morphologically (especially as larvae) This paper describes preliminary results from sequencing of two gene regions the ITS1 (internal transcribed spacer) region and the COI (cytochrome oxidase one) gene These sequences were used to compare FRW from New Zealand Australia Hawaii and Chile The results showed that the COI region would be more useful than ITS1 for future studies of FRW population genetics