REVIEW OF MOLECULAR TAXONOMY STUDIES ON COLEOPTERA AQUATIC INSECTS

With millions of species and their life-stage transformations, the animal kingdom makes taxonomy difficult. Insects are the most numerous group of animals, and its taxonomy is primarily based on morphological characters. However, molecular systems have been developed in recent years especially in order to discriminate closely related species and in order to identify the species which have not been distinguished by taxonomic methods currently employed. Over the last ten decades, the use of molecular methods, especially DNA sequence data has had a profound influence on taxonomy. The DNA sequences which are commonly used, occur either in the nucleus of the cell or in organelles such as mitochondria. This is a review article about molecular taxonomy studies on insects, especially Coleoptera aquatic ones.