New publication on species delineation via DNA barcodes for butterflies

In a recent publication in the very well-known journal Systematic Biology, an international team of scientists with the involvement of GBOL deals with the potential of species delineation using DNA barcodes for butterflies (Lepidoptera). Based on a very large COI data set of almost 5,000 species and more than 40,000 individuals, it became clear again that a reliable determination using DNA barcodes is possible and unambiguous for the vast majority of the European butterflies. The focus of the investigation, however, was on the so-called monophyla of the mitochondrial lineages, which is an advantage for a direct delimitation of species. Where this is not the case, experts have to find the right possibility under several explanations, for which purpose the publication provides a state of the art summary of the reasons.