Javad Karimi; Mahnaz Hassani-Kakhki; Mehdi Modarres Awal
Abstract
Thrips tabaci Lindeman is an extensively distributed pest insect in many areas that affects plants through
direct feeding and at the same time, it makes damage as a vector of different viruses. As a basic first step to
control pests is authentic identification, but the inability to determine morphological ...
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Thrips tabaci Lindeman is an extensively distributed pest insect in many areas that affects plants through
direct feeding and at the same time, it makes damage as a vector of different viruses. As a basic first step to
control pests is authentic identification, but the inability to determine morphological characters of thrips
species makes this process very difficult. For creating an identification key for T. tabaci, an economically
important species present in Iran, four individuals were selected from four different sites of Mashhad and the
vicinity, each as a separate population. The method was based on nucleotide sequencing analysis of the
mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase I (COI) gene. Phylogenetic analyses conducted by the neighbor-joining
method yielded almost identical phylogenetic reconstructions of trees that separated thrips based on the
geographic origin. Molecular data indicate that different thrips species are located in distinct groups. These
results show that molecular keys can be a useful method to provide much-needed information on thrips
identification for pest management officers and quarantine purposes.
