Determination of Insect Order by Analyzing Mitochondrial Gene ND5.

Polymorphism in the mitochondrial gene ND5 enables the determination of the order, a taxonomic rank, of many insects from the 5 major insect orders-Diptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, Coleoptera, and Lepidoptera. DNA nucleotide sequences of multiple species were determined and more than 19 nucleotides characteristic of each order were identified; this makes it possible to discriminate insects at the order level more precisely and easily than when using conventional techniques.