Specimens for morphological and molecular genetic studies were collected by the authors in 2013–2015 in three regions of Russia. Specimens of E. integriceps, E. maura, and E. testudinaria were collected from the environments of Voronezh city (N51°40', E39°12'; altitude, 150–160 m); Specimens of E. dilaticollis were collected in the Teberda State Nature Reserve, north-west Caucasus (43°27'N, 41°45'E; alt., 1350–1600 m) and in the southern Ural State Reserve, southern Urals, (54°11'N, 57°37'E; alt., 285–300 m). Because of the absence of E. austriaca in our collections from cereal crops and natural ecosystems at these points in the European part of Russia during the study period, and the absence of this species as a cereal pest in the vast territory of the European part of Russia, DNA barcoding of this species has not been made by us. The collected specimens from the four species of Eurygaster species were stored at the Voronezh State University. Insects were collected in areas containing cereals and wild grasses with an insect collecting net. The bugs that were caught were placed individually in test tubes with 96% ethanol, labeled, and transported on the same day to the laboratory. Prior to analyses the samples were stored at - 20 °C to slow the degradation of DNA. The morphological features of Eurygaster species were studied using a collection of more than 800 Eurygaster specimens from different regions of Eurasia stored at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg).

Specimen preparation and morphological studies were performed using an MBS-10 binocular light microscope. Photographs of the specimens were taken with a Leica DFC495 camera mounted on a Leica M205C binocular microscope. Image processing and analyses were performed using the Leica Application Suite v4.5 software. Drawings of genitalia of male Eurygaster species were made using a RA-6 drawing apparatus after genitalia isolation and treatment with 4% KOH (Golub et al. 2012). Morphological identification was carried out according to the previously developed identification keys (Kiritshenko et al. 1951b, Stichel 1959-1962, Kerzhner and Jaczewski 1964, Golub 1980).

DNA was isolated from the legs of the specimens with a ZR Tissue & Insect DNA MicroPrep kit (Zymo Research, USA). Voucher specimens are stored in the department of Ecology and Systematics of Invertebrates of Voronezh State University. Polymerase chain reaction was performed with an Eppendorf MasterCycler Personal cycler. Each PCR reaction mixture contained 2.5 µl of 10x reaction buffer (Evrogen, Russia), 1 µl of 10 mM dNTPs, 1 µl of 10 µM forward primer, 1 µl of 10 µM reverse primer, 3 µl of 25 mM Mg2⁺, 1 µg of template DNA, 2.5 units of thermostable Taq DNA polymerase (Evrogen, Russia), and deionized water (up to 25 μl). The PCR regime included initial denaturation at 94 °C for 3 min; 35 cycles of denaturation at 94 °C for 30 s, annealing at 51 °C for 30 s, elongation at 72 °C for 45 s; and final elongation at 72°C for 10 min. The primers used were: forward LepF1 5'-ATTCAACCAATCATAAAGATATTGG (Hebert 2004, Wilson 2012), reverse LepR1 5'-TAAACTTCTGGATGTCCAAAAAATCA (Hebert 2004, Wilson 2012). Also, we used EurG-f 5’-GAATATGAGCCGGAATAGTAGGA and EurG-r 5’-ATGTGTTGAAGTTACGGTCA primers, developed by us. PCR products were separated by electrophoresis in 2% agarose gel, stained with ethidium bromide, and visualized with a TCP-20LM transilluminator at 312 nm. The size of the PCR products was determined using 100+ DNA length standards (Evrogen, Russia).

PCR products were purified from the agarose gel with a commercially available Cleanup Standard kit (Evrogen, Russia) and sequenced with an Applied Biosystems 3500 genetic analyzer using the BigDye Terminator v3.1 Cycle Sequencing Kit. DNA barcoding primers (LepF1, LepR1, EurG-r and EurG-f) were used for sequencing. Sequence alignment was performed with the Clustal Omega tool (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/msa/clustalo/). Sequences were translated into amino acid sequences to verify that it was free of stop codons and gaps with EMBOSS Transeq (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/st/emboss_transeq/). Phylogenetic analysis was carried out using Mega 6 (Center for Evolutionary Medicine and Informatics, USA) software. The sequences were truncated to 479 bp. Pairwise genetic distances between specimens were calculated using the Kimura 2 Parameter (K2P) model (Kimura 1980). The K2P model provides a substitution framework with free parameters for both transitions and transversions, accounting for the likely higher substitution rate of transitions in mitochondrial DNA. The gene tree reconstruction was inferred using the Neighbor-Joining method (Saitou and Nei 1987). The percentage of replicate trees in which the associated taxa clustered together in the bootstrap test (500 replicates with pairwise deletion of gaps/missing data and inclusion of all substitutions (transitions and transversions)) are shown next to the branches (Felsenstein 1985). The tree is drawn to scale, with branch lengths in the same units as those of the evolutionary distances used to infer the phylogenetic tree. The evolutionary distances were computed using the Kimura 2-parameter method and are in the units of the number of base substitutions per site. The analysis involved 35 nucleotide sequences. All positions with less than 95% site coverage were eliminated. That is, fewer than 5% of alignment gaps, missing data, and ambiguous bases were allowed at any position. There were a total of 479 positions in the final dataset. Gene tree reconstruction was conducted in MEGA6 (Tamura et al. 2013). Odontotarsus purpureolineatus (Rossi, 1790) (Hemiptera: Scutelleridae) was chosen as outgroup. Estimates of evolutionary divergence between groups were conducted using the Kimura 2-parameter model (Saitou and Nei 1987).

Primer and probe design for the fast identification of Eurygaster species was performed according to the most appropriate of the following factors: 1. primer length between 18 bp and 30 bp; 2. no distinct hairpin structure and dimers; 3. GC% from 20% to 80% for primers and probes; 4. the minimum G/C content at the 3 ‘end of the primers; 5. minimum identical nucleotides together in probes; 6. the 5’-end of probes must not be G; 7. PCR-product size: from 50 bp to 200 bp; 8. the annealing temperature of the probes must be at least 5 °C above the annealing temperature of the primers; 9. several SNPs (for Eurygaster integriceps and other species of the same genus) at the DNA-probe hybridization site.

Analysis of suitable restriction enzymes for species differentiation was performed using theoretical diagrams of DNA digestion by enzymes, available from http://www.sibenzyme.com/products/restrictases. The PCR product was obtained with the forward (EurG-f 5’-GAATATGAGCCGGAATAGTAGGG) and reverse (EurG-r 5’-ATGTGTTGAAGTTACGGTCA) primers that were designed according to the sequencing data. PCR products (10 µl) were digested in the reaction mixture containing 1.5 µl of 10X reaction buffer and 10 U of restriction endonuclease Bst2UI, AhlI and PsiI (Sibenzym, Russia) in a total volume of 15 µl. The mixture was incubated for 2 h at 37 °C, and the enzyme was then inactivated at 75 °C for 15 min. The digestion products were visualized by electrophoresis with bromide ethidium in 2% agarose gel.

The collection of Eurygaster pest species from the territory of Teberda State Nature Reserve (north-west Caucasus) was carried out under the agreement regarding the collaboration of scientific research between Voronezh State University and Teberda State Nature Reserve. The collection of Eurygaster pest species from the territory of Southern Ural State Reserve (southern Urals) was carried out under the agreement regarding the scientific research collaboration between Voronezh State University and Southern Ural State Reserve. These agreements include the procedures for harvesting, collection, analysis, and publishing of the obtained results for different taxonomic groups of insects, including the pests. The collection of Eurygaster pest species from the suburbs of Voronezh city was carried out at the “Venevitinovo”, biological station, which is a structural part of Voronezh State University, in accordance with internal university bioethical rules.

184 samples of various species of bugs were collected during this study. Morphological and molecular analysis (DNA barcoding and PCR-RFLP) were performed with adult specimens that were not damaged during collection (Table 1).

The morphological features of the Eurygaster species proposed earlier by different authors, including the co-author of the present work were used (Batzakis 1972, Golub 1980, Kerzhner and Jaczewski 1964, Vinogradova 1959), with the addition of the main morphometric features of the three most dangerous cereals pests in eastern European Russia, E. integriceps, E. maura, and E. testudinaria (Table 3). The main morphological differences between these species are shown in Table 2 and Figs 5–7.

Figure 5. 

Species of the genus Eurygaster Laporte, general view: A E. integriceps (Puton) B E. maura L. C E. testudinaria (Geoffroy) D E. dilaticollis Dohrn. Specimens A–C were collected in the Voronezh Region; specimen D was from the Teberda Nature Reserve, Caucasus.

Eurygaster austriaca significantly differs from the above-mentioned three species: the frontal part of its head clypeus is covered by jugal plates (Fig. 7A). Eurygaster dilaticollis differs from other species by a short pronotum that is not much than the head (Fig. 5D).

Figure 6. 

Head, anterior view (A, B) and female median genital plates (C, D) of E. maura L. (A, C) and E. testudinaria (Geoffroy) (B, D).

Morphometric parameters on the base of measurements of both sexes in the samples of three cereals pests from the Voronezh Region are given in Table 3.

Morphometric parameters on the base of measurements of specimens of both sexes in the samples of three cereals pests from the Voronezh Region are given in Table 3.

Figure 7. 

Structural details of Eurygaster Laporte species (a, clypeus; b, jugal plate): A E. austriaca (Schrank), head, dorsal view B E. integriceps (Puton), dorsal view C E. integriceps, aedeagus D E. maura L., aedeagus E E. testudinaria (Geoffroy), aedeagus (after Golub, 1980, with changes).

DNA isolated from collected Sunn pest specimens was used for COI gene amplification. It was found that the universal primers LepF, LepF2_t1 and MHemF, commonly used for the identification of insects (Wilson 2012), had a very low specificity toward the isolated DNA of these insects.

658 bp length DNA sequences (Folmer region) obtained with LepF1/LepR1 primers were registered in the GenBank database under the numbers presented in Table 1. The sequences are also registered in the Bold System database with the following Barcode Index Numbers (BINs) assigned: E. integriceps – BOLD:AAZ6788; E. maura – BOLD:AAZ3231; E. testudinaria – BOLD:AAZ3231; E. dilaticollis – BOLD:AAZ3231.

Analysis of the nucleotide sequences of COI genes from the three main pests of crops in Eastern Europe, E. integriceps, E. maura, and E. testudinaria, has shown that the difference between the COI gene of E. integriceps and that of the two other species was more than 4%.

We failed to amplify the COI gene from E. dilaticollis when using either LepF1/LepR1 primer pair or any of the other primer pairs commonly used for COI amplification (LCO/HCO, LCO_t1/HCO_t1, MLepF1/MLepR1, as well as combinations of these primers). The only two primer pairs that successfully produced the required PCR product were EurG-f /EurG-r and EurG-f /LepR1; however, the amplicon length in this case was shorter than 613 bp. Its nucleotide sequence was the same as those from E. maura and E. testudinaria. DNA barcoding of E. dilaticollis was performed for the first time.

A Neighbor-joining (NJ) tree was shown to be a useful clustering method for large datasets (Yang and Rannala 2012, Tamura et al. 2004). We have reconstructed a phylogenetic tree that reflects genetic distances between Eurygaster species using Kimura 2-parameter algorithm and the COI gene sequences of Eurygaster species obtained by us as well as all Eurygaster species sequences available in the GenBank database (Fig. 8).

Figure 8. 

Neighbor joining analysis of COI gene sequences from Eurygaster species. * - sequences obtained in this work.

The genetic distance between the E. integriceps species and the group species that includes the 3 species (E. maura, E. testudinaria and E. dilaticollis) was 0.049. The genetic distance between the E. integriceps species and E. austriaca was 0.121. The within-group mean distance for E. integriceps was 0.007, for E. maura 0.001, and for E. testudinaria it was 0.002.

Considering the fact that the COI nucleotide sequence of E. integriceps differs significantly from those of E. maura and E. testudinaria, a method for its rapid identification has been developed using an analysis of the nucleotide regions of cytochrome oxidase (COI) and two identification methods have been tested: PCR with TaqMan probes and PCR-RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism). Conservative DNA sequences within each species were identified. First, two sets of PCR primers and probes were developed by identifying the SNP-carrying fragments within the COI gene sequence as sites for probe and primer annealing (Table 4).

Despite optimization of PCR conditions (temperature, DNA template concentration, primer/probe concentrations), we failed to achieve 100% species-specific identification for either E. integriceps or E. maura/E. testudinaria. Overall, out of nine PCR reactions, nonspecific primer and probe annealing (i.e. annealing of primers and probe specific for one of Eurygaster species on DNA of other species) was observed in two reactions.

Another method for the express identification of E. integriceps is PCR-RFLP. Preliminarily, COI nucleotide sequences were analyzed from various Eurygaster species for the presence of restriction enzyme sites that would be different in these species and produce cleavage products suitable for electrophoretic analysis in agarose gel. The possibility of using more than 100 restriction enzymes was examined and three restriction enzymes were chosen. The reaction products for these enzymes are well separated in agarose gel and have specific patterns for the E. maura/E. testudinaria/ E. dilaticollis and E. integriceps considering intraspecific variability. The selected restriction enzymes are shown in Table 5.

To obtain a PCR fragment for restriction analysis forward (EurG-f 5’-GAATATGAGCCGGAATAGTAGGG) and reverse (EurG-r 5’-ATGTGTTGAAGTTACGGTCA) primers were used that yielded a 585-bp PCR product. The primers LepF1/LepR1 could not be used in this case because of the low specificity of the LepF1 primer for Eurygaster species. Cleavage of the obtained PCR product resulted in DNA fragments of predicted sizes for all tested species (Fig. 9).

Eight specimens from each Eurygaster species were analyzed by this method and any of the restriction enzymes could be successfully used for identification of E. integriceps.

Figure 9. 

Restriction fragments of COI PCR products (restriction enzyme, species): 1AhlI, E. maura or E. testudinaria 2AhlI, E. integriceps 3PsiI, E. maura or E. testudinaria 4PsiI, E. integriceps 5Bst2UI, E. maura or E. testudinaria 6Bst2UI, E. integriceps; M, 100 bp DNA ladder.