First Assessment of the Biodiversity of Praying Mantises (Insecta: Mantodea) in Cameroon with DNA Barcoding

Praying mantises are the apex insect predators in many ecosystems, nevertheless they receive relatively less recognition in biodiversity reviews. We report a first survey of diversity of praying mantises in Cameroon, which is situated in the Congo Basin region, one of the richest biodiversity hotspots. Combination of light trapping with manual collecting resulted in 495 specimens representing 62 species. A total of eight species are novel for the country, at least five species are likely undescribed. DNA barcodes of 72 specimens representing every collected species were obtained, curated, and submitted to NCBI database. For eight species, barcodes are published for the first time. A maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree was created using all available barcodes of Mantodea of Central African subregion. The results obtained during this study stress the importance of combining traditional and molecular approaches during biodiversity assessments of often neglected taxa, the latter aiding in uncovering new species, resolving unknown morphological divergencies and assigning conspecifics.