Genetic diversity of the dung beetle, Copris tripartitus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), that is endangered in Korea

The dung beetle, Copris tripartitus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), is an endangered insect in Korea. In order to establish a conservation strategy, a preliminary investigation on the genetic diversity of Korean populations was performed using mitochondrial COI (658 bp), CytB (433 bp), and nuclear ITS2 (411 nucleotide positions). Sequencing of 69 individuals collected from five localities showed substantially higher variability (5.02% for COI, 4.62% for CytB, and 8.03% for ITS2). The resulting networks for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes exhibited two star-like phylogenies, which might indicate that Korean populations have recently expended from two small populations. The ITS2 network, which was presented in the form of a star-like phylogeny, confirmed that a recent population expansion occurred. Considering the high genetic diversity and gene flow in C. tripartitus populations, one issue regarding conservation seems to be the recovery of previous habitats.