Species boundaries and genetic diversity among Hawaiian crickets of the genus Laupala identified using amplified fragment length polymorphism

Crickets of the genus Laupala represent one of the many morphologically cry ptic groups of insects, with the most closely related species distinguished only by the male calling song. Cryptic groups provide a challenge in deter mining the genetic boundaries between closely related populations and speci es. We have addressed the question of species boundaries in the Hawaiian cr icket, Laupala, using nuclear DNA patterns sampled by the amplified fragmen t length polymorphism (AFLP) technique. This method has been used widely by plant researchers to facilitate the rapid assessment of genetic diversity in very closely related species and varieties. The AFLP technique is simple and robust, can be applied to any organism, and overcomes problems associa ted with cost, development time, information content and reproducibility th at can plague other marker systems. Our results support previously hypothes ized taxonomic relationships among sympatric populations and suggest close genetic relationships among allopatric, conspecific populations.