Taxonomic identification accuracy from BOLD and GenBank databases using over a thousand insect DNA barcodes from Colombia.

Recent declines of insect populations at high rates have resulted in the need to develop a quick method to determine their diversity and to process massive data for the identification of species of highly diverse groups. A short sequence of DNA from COI is widely used for insect identification by comparing it against sequences of known species. Repositories of sequences are available online with tools that facilitate matching of the sequences of interest to a known individual.

Deadly and venomous Lonomia caterpillars are more than the two usual suspects.

Caterpillars of the Neotropical genus Lonomia (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) are responsible for some fatal envenomation of humans in South America inducing hemostatic disturbances in patients upon skin contact with the caterpillars' spines. Currently, only two species have been reported to cause hemorrhagic syndromes in humans: Lonomia achelous and Lonomia obliqua. However, species identifications have remained largely unchallenged despite improved knowledge of venom diversity and growing evidence that the taxonomy used over past decades misrepresents and underestimates species diversity.

Response to: A paleoecological context to assess the development of oak forest in Colombia: A comment on Zorrilla-Azcué, S., González-Rodríguez, A., Oyama, K., González, M.A. & Rodríguez-Correa, H., The DNA history of a lonely oak: phylogeography in the Colombian Andes. Ecology and Evolution 2021, doi:10.1002/ece3.7529.

In this response, we address comments and clarify the rationale behind the choice of hypotheses aimed to describe the phylogeography in the Colombian Andes. Finally, we explain our disagreement with the conclusions of a previous critique, since these are not necessarily adequate under the implemented population genetics approach.

The DNA history of a lonely oak: phylogeography in the Colombian Andes.

The climatic and geological changes that occurred during the Quaternary, particularly the fluctuations during the glacial and interglacial periods of the Pleistocene, shaped the population demography and geographic distribution of many species. These processes have been studied in several groups of organisms in the Northern Hemisphere, but their influence on the evolution of Neotropical montane species and ecosystems remains unclear. This study contributes to the understanding of the effect of climatic fluctuations during the late Pleistocene on the evolution of Andean mountain forests.

Genetic diversity of the rain tree () in Colombian seasonally dry tropical forest for informing conservation and restoration interventions.

is a multipurpose tree species of seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTFs) of Mesoamerica and northern South America typically cultivated in silvopastoral and other agroforestry systems around the world, a trend that is bound to increase in light of multimillion hectare commitments for forest and landscape restoration. The effective conservation and sustainable use of requires detailed knowledge of its genetic diversity across its native distribution range of which surprisingly little is known to date. We assessed the genetic diversity and structure of across twelve representative locations of SDTF in Colombia, and how they may have been shaped by past climatic changes and human influence.

A morphological database for Colombian anuran species from conservation-priority ecosystems.

Species traits provide a strong link between an organism's fitness and processes at community and ecosystem levels. However, such data remain scarce for amphibians in the Neotropics. Colombia is the country with the highest number of threatened amphibians and the second greatest number of amphibian species worldwide.

A morphological database for 606 Colombian bird species.

Colombia is the country with the highest bird diversity in the world. Despite active research in ornithology, compelling morphological information of most bird species is still sparse. However, morphological information is the baseline to understand how species respond to environmental variation and how ecosystems respond to species loss.

Cryptic diversity revealed by DNA barcoding in Colombian illegally traded bird species.

Colombia is the country with the largest number of bird species worldwide, yet its avifauna is seriously threatened by habitat degradation and poaching. We built a DNA barcode library of nearly half of the bird species listed in the CITES appendices for Colombia, thereby constructing a species identification reference that will help in global efforts for controlling illegal species trade. We obtained the COI barcode sequence of 151 species based on 281 samples, representing 46% of CITES bird species registered for Colombia.

Identification of Amazonian trees with DNA barcodes.

Background: Large-scale plant diversity inventories are critical to develop informed conservation strategies. However, the workload required for classic taxonomic surveys remains high and is particularly problematic for megadiverse tropical forests.

Methodology/principal Findings: Based on a comprehensive census of all trees in two hectares of a tropical forest in French Guiana, we examined whether plant DNA barcoding could contribute to increasing the quality and the pace of tropical plant biodiversity surveys.