Molecular Identification and DNA Barcoding of some Megophthalminae Species (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) from Egypt

Two species of leafhoppers, Austroagallia sinuata (Mulsant & Rey, 1835) and Anaceratagallia laevis (Ribaut, 1935) are described, illustrated, and Molecularly Identified. There are also comprehensive descriptions of intraspecific variation in male genitalia and images of the two species. Material is deposited in the Reference Egyptian Museum of Insects at the Plant Protection Research Institute, Agriculture Research Centre. Using specific primers from the investigated Megophthalminae species, the 28S rDNA and mt COX genes were amplified. The nucleotide sequences of the genes EGY-ARC-3and EGY-ARC-15 were entered into the National Centre for Biotechnology Information's (NCBI) Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) and contrasted with those stored in the GenBank DNA database. Based on Multiple Sequence Alignment (MSA) using the Clustal W2 algorithm with MEGA default parameters, the findings showed the homology percentage between the partial sequences of the 28S rRNA gene from each species and related species. The data revealed more similarities between species belonging to the Megophthalminae subfamily. This work verified the morphological identities of the two leafhopper species through molecular characterization and the sequencing of 28rDNA and COX genes. They were identified as Austroagallia sinuata EGY-ARC3 and Anaceratagallia laevis EGY-ARC15. Additionally, their sequencing of the COX and 28 srDNA genes was submitted to GenBank, where it was assigned accession numbers (LC775124.1 and LC775136.1) for the COX gene and (LC670606.1, and LC670615) for the 28 srDNA, respectively.