Abstracts - Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

Zoological Systematics Posters 211P ZS.13 - ENMass fingerprints for discrimination of critical species complexes: Miomantis(Mantodea) as a model caseRené Köhler, Reinhard PredelInstitute of General Zoology and Animal Physiology, University of JenaSpecies complexes are often difficult to describe because of high intraspecific morphological variabilityon the one hand and a lack of distinct morphological characters on the other hand. Here weused neuropeptides which co-evolve with their respective receptors as marker to distinguish insecttaxa, focusing on Praying Mantids. MALDI-TOF mass spectra of thoracic and abdominal perisympatheticOrgans in which extended FMRF amides and CAPA-periviscerokinins are accumulated resultedin group specific mass fingerprints. These fingerprints and the complete sequences of CAPAperiviscerokininswere sampled from 80 Mantodea species; 20 of those belong to the frequentlymodified genus Miomantis SAUSSURE, 1870. The data confirmed the monophyly of Mantodea. Incontrast to Blattoptera, Mantodea have very similar CAPA-periviscerokinin sequences and do notexpress CAPA-Pyrokinin. The specificity of the mass fingerprints was subsequently used to calibratemorphological characters, and both characters were included in a determination key. Herewith aninstrument is given to distinguish living or frozen individuals to populations and species, independentfrom their larval status or sex.P ZS.14 - ENMolecular identification of carabid beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) using short nuclearDNA sequencesMichael Raupach 1 , Karsten Hannig, Thomas Wagner 2 , Bernhard Misof 3 , Johann-Wolfgang Wägele 11Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig; 2 Universität Koblenz-Landau; 3 Institut fürEntomologie, Universität HamburgThe Carabidae form one of the largest families of insects, with no less than an estimated 40,000described species, occurring in nearly any terrestrial habitat on all continents (except Antarctica).This extreme diversity and distribution, along with the high abundance of these beetles in a largevariety of habitats, has resulted in a considerable interest in many aspects of their study, includingsystematics, biogeography, ecology and evolution. Because Carabidae show different levels of habitatselectivity, carabid assemblages can be used as valuable bioindicators to characterize disturbancein various habitats. However, the identification of many species is difficult due to high morphologicalvariability. Therefore, a DNA-based taxonomy analysing a vast number of specimens will beuseful to ensure accurate species identifications and biodiversity research. In our project we studythe quality of mitochondrial and especially nuclear gene fragments of Middle European Carabidaefor species identification, with a strong focus on species-variable and informative short nuclear genefragments. Beside samples stored in alcohol, we analyse old, pinned specimens of the ZFMK carabidcollection with more than 120,000 specimens. Tissue samples and DNA extracts are deposited in thenewly founded DNA bank of the ZFMK, as part of the DNA-Bank network (www.dnabank-network.org).