Morphological identification and molecular barcoding of some species belonging to the Cicadellidae (Hemiptera) family collected from the Western Mediterranean fauna

Morphological and molecular diagnostic studies were carried out on the family Cicadellidae species collected from Antalya, Isparta, and Burdur provinces between 2018 and 2020. Morphological analyses involved photographing morphological characters used in diagnosis, followed by conventional methods. Molecular systematic methods, on the other hand, utilized the DNA barcoding technique to obtain mitochondrial COI gene region and entire mitochondrial genome sequences were obtained by using next generation sequencing method. In this thesis 19 species are included: Aconurella prolixa, Aphrodes bicinctus, Artianus manderstjernii, Austroagallia sinuata, Balclutha hebe, Balclutha sp.,Deltocephalus pulicaris, Doratura homophyla, Eupelix cuspidata, Euscelidius schenckii, Exitianus capicola, Fieberiella macchiae, Goniagnathus guttulinervis, Neoaliturus fenestratus, Orosius albicinctus, Phlepsius intricatus, Psammotettix sp., Selenocephalus ankarae and Thamnotettix zelleri. The results of the study revealed that the COI barcode regions were obtained for the first time for Artianus manderstjernii, Euscelidius schenckii, Fieberiella macchiae, Phlepsius intricatus, Selenocephalus ankarae and Thamnotettix zelleri species. BLAST analysis of Deltocephalus pulicaris, Doratura homophyla, Exitianus capicola, Goniagnathus guttulinervis, Neoaliturus fenestratus and Orosius albicinctus species, from which the COI barcode region was obtained, showed consistency with other studies at the species level in the database. It has been observed that COI gene region can be used in the identification of these species. Furthermore, complete mitochondrial genome sequences specific to Artianus manderstjernii, Deltocephalus pulicaris, Euscelidius schenckii, Exitianus capicola, Goniagnathus guttulinervis, Phlepsius intricatus, Selenocephalus ankarae and Thamnotettix zelleri species were not found in the NCBI gene database, and whole mitochondrial sequence information specific to these species was obtained for the first time through this thesis. Partial mitochondrial genome information was also obtained for Austroagallia sinuata, Balclutha hebe, Fieberiella macchiae, Neoaliturus fenestratus and Psammotettix sp. species.