Morphological study and Molecular identification of Maiestas knighti (Webb and Viraktamath, 2009) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) in Erbil Province, Kurdistan Region –Iraq

Abstract

A new record, Maiestas knighti (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) is described and a molecular identified from Iraq. Samples were collected by Arial insect net from various Cucurbitaceae plants (melon, cucurbit, pumpkin, cucumbers and snake cucumber) between 25th/May till 2nd/August/2021 and 5th/June tile 2nd/September/ 2022. The important characteristic of species is indicated that, the mandibles and maxillae are needle shaped. The antennae are setaceous, pale brown, consist of 38 antennomers, 1st antenomer cup shaped, 2nd antenomer nearly rectangular, 2.6 times as long as the 1st antennomer, 3rd antenomer elongated oval, 38th antenomer oval, nearly equal in length with the 37th antennomer. Pygophore slightly sclerotized, posterior part narrower than anterior, apically covered with dense and long brown setae. The subgenitalia plate pale brown, long, a slightly convex caudal margin, apically rounded. Genital style is brown, hook shaped apically, basal part broader than apical part. The aedeagus dark brown, low sclerotized and dorsoventrally flattened. Photographs of the importance parts were provided. Localities, plant hosts and date of collected are indicated. The molecular identification determines a 550 bp bands of mitochondrial gene COI, which was amplified with PCR from the Maiestas knighti for constructing and distinguish a phylogenetic tree. The COI gene sequences of insect species were aliment insides NCBI GenBank using BLAST programs and utilized to compare the sequenced nucleotides others Maiestas species sequence. The outcome illustration that obtained sequences was M. knighti identified species based on the mitochondria COI gene. The sequence COI of M. knighti was submitted to GenBank with accession OQ709767 Kafroshi17. 

Keywords

• morphological
• molecular
• maiestas knighti
• iraq