Where Taxonomy Based on Subtle Morphological Differences Is Perfectly Mirrored by Huge Genetic Distances: DNA Barcoding in Protura (Hexapoda)

Abstract

The study clearly demonstrates that the tricky morphological taxonomy in Protura has a solid biological background and that accurate species delimitation is possible using both markers, COI and 28S rDNA. The fact that both molecular and morphological analyses can be performed on the same individual will be of great importance for the description of new species and offers a valuable new tool for biological and ecological studies, in which proturans have generally remained undetermined at species level.