DNA Barcoding and Phylogenetic Analysis of Ladybird Beetles from South Gujarat, India

The diversity of the family Coccinellidae is of great practical and scientific importance due to their worldwide utilization as natural enemies of phytophagous insects. The COI gene sequences of ten coccinellid species were generated and submitted to NCBI database with accession numbers. The phylogenetic analysis using molecular data revealed that the family Coccinellidae was monophyletic in origin. The species of tribe Coccinellini formed a single clade and had shown monophyly. The tribe Epilachnini and Stethorini formed the basal clades. The interspecific genetic distance among the Coccinellid species ranged between 0.170–0.315 with the lowest genetic distance of 0.170 between C. transversalis and P. bisoctonotata while the highest genetic distance was found between H. octomaculata and S. pauperculus (0.315). This study confirms the monophyletic origin of the family Coccinellidae.