Development of internal COI primers to improve and extend barcoding of fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae: Dacini)

Accurate species‐level identifications underpin many aspects of basic and applied biology; however, identifications can be hampered by a lack of discriminating morphological characters, taxonomic expertise or time. Molecular approaches, such as DNA “barcoding” of the cytochrome c oxidase ( COI ) gene, are argued to overcome these issues. However, nuclear encoding of mitochondrial genes (numts) and poor amplification success of suboptimally...