About 65% of Australia's butterfly and moth species have been genetically 'barcoded' over a period of just 10 weeks in an attempt to gather new information on this major, ecologically important group of insects.
DNA barcoding uses short genetic sequences to identify different species, similar to the way a supermarket scanner distinguishes between various products by comparing the arrangement of black stripes.
The massive identification effort is the first of its kind in Australia and was undertaken by the CSIRO's National Insect Collection (ANIC) in Canberra in collaboration with the Atlas of Living Australia - the CSIRO's growing biodiveristy database, and the International Barcode of Life.
"Barcoding will be critically important to our goal of being able to rapidly identify most organisms on the planet within the next decade or so," said John La Salle, head of the Australian National Insect Collection, and a collaborator on the project. "It doesn't replace taxonomy, but it does complement it."
Barcodes help identify
Identifying species using the genetic barcoding method has already provided valuable information on a wide range of plant and animal groups. It has expanded species identification beyond academic interests into agricultural, wildlife forensic and pest control applications in the U.S and Europe, La Salle said.
But the CSIRO's National Insect Collection is the first in Australia to use the high-speed method on a major group such as butterflies and moths.
To collect the barcodes for each specimen, La Salle and researchers from the University of Guelph in Ontario extracted DNA from the tissue of each specimen and recorded its individual genetic code. The data was then entered into a database along with an image of the specimen.
Crreating 28,000 barcodes
In just 10 weeks, 28,000 moth and butterfly specimens were barcoded - over half of Australia's known species in this group. A large number of these specimens had not been fully described until this project.
"One of the things we've found is that we have hundreds of undescribed species. This barcoding adds another layer of data," said La Salle. "Barcoding is a part of the package we are using to accelerate our knowledge of biodiversity on this planet."
The Atlas of Living Australia's enormous database of plant, animal and microorganism information may become a valuable resource for government agencies that need to quickly prioritise conservation efforts in a rapidly changing world.
Such rapid ecological assessment is essential for managing Australia's fragile biodiversity both currently and in decades to come.
"We don't have another millennium," said La Selle. "The biological sciences are facing several challenges over the next few decades, and barcoding can build our knowledge so we can make decisions about what needs to be done."
