As part of a molecular approach, I’ve been designing and testing CO1 primers to use for mitochondrial barcoding in Conostigmus. Unfortunately, I’ve run into problems: CO1 does not appear to be conserved in Conostigmus, and the portions that are conserved are frustratingly rich in adenine and thymine. Since A-T bonds are weaker than G-C bonds, it is harder for primers to bind securely to A-T rich areas, making these areas useless for primer design. Though I do have primers that work for some species, I’m not sure if it’s possible to make a universal primer that will work for all Conostigmus.
However, with the work that I’ve done so far, I had enough CO1 sequences that I was able to make a preliminary tree of Conostigmus and Megaspilus species. As you can see below, the three Megaspilus specimens are all grouped together, which is what I would expect to see since they all belong to the same species, Megaspilus armatus.
![](https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/775/31668244315_fc30c7dd6d.jpg)
Something else interesting is that Megaspilus armatus is nested within Conostigmus. It’s possible that Megaspilus might just be a larger Conostigmus, due to its close resemblance to larger Conostigmus species such as C. crassicornis and C. ballescoracas. The only main difference between Conostigmus and Megaspilus is the presence of a bifurcated propodeal spine, which is present in all Megaspilus. While there are no bifurcated spines in Conostigmus, there are a few species that have a single spine, including those species that resemble Megaspilus such as C. ballescoracas.
Whether you prefer a Christmas tree or a phylogenetic tree, we here at the Frost would like to wish you happy holidays and a happy new year!
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