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Welcome to the North American campaign of the Lepidoptera Barcode of Life.
The lepidopteran fauna of Canada and United States includes some 12500 known species and perhaps 2500 more await description. Many of the tundra and boreal forest species also occur in Eurasia, but more southerly regions are dominated by a fauna that is largely endemic to North America. Because past taxonomic work has been intensive, this fauna provides an excellent situation to test the effectiveness of DNA barcodes in the discrimination of known species. It additionally provides an opportunity to test if DNA barcodes can reveal species overlooked by past taxonomic work and to examine if barcodes can resolve uncertain synonymies.
Three organizations are providing key support for this campaign. Researchers at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History in Washington and their counterparts at Agriculture Canada’s National Insect Collection in Ottawa are leading the taxonomic work, while their institutions are serving as primary repositories for barcoded specimens. Researchers at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario play a complementary role; they are responsible for the acquisition, curation and analysis of barcode records. The actual project team is substantially larger because other contributors are aiding specimen collections and identifications.
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Barcode Coverage
