Taxonomic identification/inventory of Algerian Ants assisted by a molecular barcoding and phylogenetic approach using COX1 mitochondrial sequences

Sixty-one specimens of ants belonging to the family Formicidae, collected from different ecosystems in Algeria, were sequenced and barcoded using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (COX1). The DNA barcodes newly generated from this study were compared and analyzed with COX1 homologs available in GenBank databases representing putative conspecific and congeneric relatives of the Algerian ant samples and several others to represent the Formicoid, Poneroid, and Leptanillinae diversity to serve as molecular barcode references and outgroups for phylogenetic analyses.

The results confirmed the COX1 gene as an excellent molecular marker at the generic level. They allowed the unambiguous taxonomic assignment of the Algerian specimens surveyed to fourteen Formicoid genera belonging to the Myrmicinae, Formicinae, and Dolichoderinae subfamilies, with abundance of Crematogaster, Tapinoma, Cataglyphis, and Componotus representatives. Such an integrative approach not only provided molecular support to most morphology-based identification but also allowed suggestion of taxonomic assignment or reassignment of some incompletely determined specimens, in accordance with the latest taxonomic revisions (e.g., Plagiolepis schmitzii, Camponotus spissinodis).