13 DNA Barcoding for Identification of Agriculturally Important Insects S. K. Jalali, Rakshit Ojha and T. Venkatesan A. K. Chakravarthy (ed.), New Horizons in Insect Science: Towards Sustainable Pest Management, DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-2089-3_2, © Springer India 2015 S. K. Jalali () · R. Ojha · T. Venkatesan National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Post Bag No. 2491, H. A. Farm Post, Hebbal Bellary Road, Bangalore, Karnataka 560024 India e-mail: jalalisk1910@yahoo.co.in Abstract Molecular characterization and DNA barcoding is a taxonomic method that uses a short genetic marker in an insect DNA to identify a species, including an unknown species. The DNA barcode method of identifica- tion includes, for example, identifying insect species from any developing stage and part; otherwise, identifying insects morphologically generally depends on adult stage and male genitalia. The utility of DNA barcoding for these purposes is subject to debate; however, in insects at least, it is approximately 650 bp of the mitochondrial gene, cytochrome oxidase I ( COX I). The approximate number of described insect species in India is 59,000; however, the number of barcodes generated from India is 4.6 % of known species, while the corresponding global scenario is about 16 % of described species; a lot of emphasis is required to catch up with the world scenario. In order to speed up taxonomic identification, DNA barcoding is now been considered as an alternative tool for insect biodiversity iden- tification in India and the world. The present chapter deals with the use of barcode in the identification of insects belonging to different orders and families, using the neighbour-joining approach with the bootstrap- ping method and the Kimura-2 parameter to obtain a clear phylogenetic signal. In a neighbour-joining tree for all sequences, two clades were ob- tained: the first cluster consisting of hymenopteran insects and the other consisting of other orders. This phylogeny also agrees with the traditional phylogeny of insects. The present results, thus, favour DNA barcoding as a decisive tool in quick and reliable identification of insects. Keywords COX 1 · DNA barcoding · India · Phylogeny Introduction Insects are the most abundant of all life on earth and have evolved into a tremendous range of different forms. It took nearly 200 years for