DETERMINING APHID TAXONOMIC AFFINITIES AND LIFE-CYCLES WITH MOLECULAR-DATA - A CASE-STUDY OF THE TRIBE CERATAPHIDINI (HORMAPHIDIDAE, APHIDOIDEA, HEMIPTERA)

Aphid taxonomy is often frustrated by the host alternation and extensi ve polyphenism displayed by many species. Here we examine the utility of using molecular data to assist in life cycle and taxonomic determin ation. We found that a relatively small amount of DNA sequence data ca n greatly assist in these tasks. Molecular data have identified the sy nonymy of five species: Tuberaphis plicator (Noordam) is a junior syno nym of T.takenouchii (Takahashi), T.taiwana (Takahashi) is a junior sy nonym of T.coreana Takahashi, Hamiltonaphis styraci (Matsumura) is tra nsferred to Tuberaphis Takahashi, Astegopteryx roepkei Hille Ris Lambe rs is transferred to Ceratoglyphina van der Goot, and A.vandermeermohr i Hille Ris Lambers is transferred to Cerataphis Lichtenstein. We have elucidated the complete life cycles of five species: A.basalis (van d er Goot) alternates between Styrax benzoin and bamboos, Ceratoglyphina bambusae van der Goot alternates between S.benzoin and bamboos, Pseud oregma sundanica (van der Goot) alternates between S.paralleloneura an d Zingiberaceae, T.coreana alternates between S.formosana and Lorantha ceae, and T.takenouchii alternates between S.japonica and Loranthaceae . Tn all cases the molecular data agreed with available morphological data. This analysis demonstrates the utility of DNA sequence compariso ns for elucidating complex life cycles and the taxonomy of difficult i nsect groups.