Barcoding Fauna Bavarica: Myriapoda - a contribution to DNA sequence-based identifications of centipedes and millipedes (Chilopoda, Diplopoda)

We give a first account of our ongoing barcoding activities on Bavarian myriapods in the framework of the Barcoding Fauna Bavarica project and IBOL, the International Barcode of Life. Having analyzed 126 taxa (including 122 species) belonging to all major German chilopod and diplopod lineages, often using four or more specimens each, at the moment our species stock includes 82% of the diplopods and 65% of the chilopods found in Bavaria, southern Germany. The partial COI sequences allow correct identification of more than 95% of the current set of Bavarian species. Moreover, most of the myriapod orders and families appear as distinct clades in neighbour-joining trees, although the phylogenetic relationships between them are not always depicted correctly. We give examples of (1) high interspecific sequence variability among closely related species; (2) low interspecific variability in some chordeumatidan genera, indicating that recent speciations cannot be resolved with certainty using COI DNA barcodes; (3) high intraspecific variation in some genera, suggesting the existence of cryptic lineages; and (4) the possible polyphyly of some taxa, i.e. the chordeumatidan genus Ochogona. This shows that, in addition to species identification, our data may be useful in various ways in the context of species delimitations, taxonomic revisions and analyses of ongoing speciation processes.