Mitochondrial COI and morphological evidence for host specificity of the black cherry aphids Myzus cerasi (Fabricius, 1775) collected from different cherry tree species in Europe (Hemiptera, Aphididae)

Partial sequences of the mitochondrial COI gene of forty eight European and two Turkish population samples of Myzus cerasi from different winter hosts (Prunus spp.) were subjected to phylogenetic analyses. The analysed M. cerasi samples emerged as paraphyletic relative to a Myzus borealis sample used as an out-group, and formed two major clades in neighbor joining, maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference trees, corresponding to subspecies living specifically on Prunus avium and P. cerasus. Multivariate discriminant analysis (method of canonical variates) was applied to find out if morphological variation of samples correlated with mitochondrial COI and host plant information. Mean scores on the first two canonical variables clustered samples fully in accordance with their COI haplotypes and host plants confirming the existence of two morphologically similar winter host - specific subspecies of M. cerasi in Europe. No single morphological character enabled satisfactory discrimination between apterous viviparous females of the two subspecies. A three-character linear discriminant function enabled 92.37% correct identification of apterous viviparous females of M. cerasi cerasi (n = 118) and 93.64% of M. cerasi pruniavium (n = 110). A key for the morphological identification of the two subspecies is presented and their taxonomic status is discussed.