We studied the occurrence of the TTAGG telomere repeats by fluorescence in-
situ hybridization (FISH) and Southern hybridization in ten insect species
and two other arthropods. (TTAGG)(n)-containing telomeres were found in thr
ee Lepidoptera species, the silkworm Bombyx mori (in which the telomeric se
quence was recently discovered), the flour moth Ephestia kuehniella, and th
e wax moth Galleria mellonella, in one species of Hymenoptera, the honey be
e Apis mellifera, in one species of Coleoptera, the bark beetle Ips typogra
phus, in one species of Orthoptera, the locust Locusta migratoria, and in a
crustacean, the amphipod Gammarus pulex. They were absent in another speci
es of Coleoptera, the mealworm Tenebrio molitor, two representatives of Dip
tera, Drosophila melanogaster and Megaselia scalaris, a species of Heteropt
era, the bug Pyrrhocoris apterus and a spider, Tegenaria ferruginea. Our re
sults, which confirm and extend earlier observations, suggest that (TTAGG)(
n) was a phylogenetically ancestral telomere motif in the insect lineage bu
t was lost independently in different groups, being replaced probably by ot
her telomere motifs. In the Coleoptera this must have happened rather recen
tly as even members of the same family, Curculionidae, differ with respect
to the telomeric DNA.