• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.65-74
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• 2011

The Scarites aterrimus (Coleoptera: Carabidae), is one of the carabid beetles dwelling exclusively on coastal sandy dunes. Habitat deterioration and equivalent activity have greatly concerned population declines in several species dwelling on the coastal sandy dunes. As a first step to establish long-term conservation strategy, we investigated the nation-wide magnitude and nature of genetic diversity of the species. As a first step, we sequenced a portion of mitochondrial COI gene, corresponding to "DNA Barcode" region (658 bp) from a total of 24 S. aterrimus individuals collected over nine sandy dunes belonging to four Korean provinces. The sequence analysis evidenced moderate to low magnitude of sequence diversity compared with other insect species distributed in Korean peninsula (0.152% to 0.912%). The presence of closely related haplotypes and relatively high gene flow estimate collectively suggest that there had been no historical barriers that bolster genetic subdivision. Population decline was postulated on the basis of several missing haplotypes that are well found in the species with a large population size. This interpretation is consistent with field observation of small population size in the coastal sandy dune habitats. The highest genetic diversity estimates were found in the coastal sand dune population of Seogwipo, Jeju Island, justifying a prior attention to the population, in order to sustain overall genetic diversity of the species. Further scrutinized study might be required for further robust conclusion.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• 제24권1호
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• pp.41-47
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• 2012

The Scarites aterrimus (Coleoptera: Carabidae) dwells exclusively on coastal sandy dunes. Previously, we investigated the nation-wide magnitude and nature of genetic diversity of the species using mitochondrial COI gene and found moderate to low magnitude of sequence diversity, the presence of closely related haplotypes, and relatively high gene flow estimate. Based on these observations we concluded that the species had no historical barriers that bolster genetic subdivision and possible population decline. In this study, we additionally sequenced mitochondrial COII gene from 23 individuals collected from 9 Korean localities to confirm previous findings. Sequencing of 688 bp COII gene provided 5 haplotypes ranging in sequence divergence from 0.145% to 0.291% (1 ~ 2 bp), further confirming low sequence divergence of the species. Gene flow estimates and genetic diversity estimates also support the previous findings that there had been no historical barriers that bolster genetic subdivision.