UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

DNA barcoding has been suggested to more precisely identify different organisms. There is a little information on the DNA barcoding of the ant species communities in the Kalaburagi region. Considering this, a study was conducted in 2022-2024 to do DNA barcoding of three ant specimens which were collected from diverse habitat using hand collection, pitfall traps and aspirators inside the Chincholi wildlife sanctuary in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, India. DNA barcoding employs one or more short, standardized DNA segments to identify taxa. COI sequences of ~650 bp were successfully generated for 3 species. Cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) was used to do the phylogenetic connection analysis. The three unique COI gene nucleotide sequences were assigned the accession numbers PX453292 (Camponotus singularis), PX453294 (Crematogaster brunnea), and PX453302 (Monomorium indicum) upon their deposit into the GenBank database. Clustal-W in MEGA 11.0 was used to accomplish multiple sequence alignment, and a neighbour joining tree, maximum likelihood, and phylogenetic analysis were built. The study provides the first baseline DNA barcode reference library for ants of Chincholi Wildlife Sanctuary. Additionally, our results are consistent with DNA barcoding of three ant species from various Indian states and foreign nations. This study represents the first record of C. singularis and C. brunnae from Karnataka and offers thorough justification for more wet lab research that supports conventional classification. Thus, the present results validate DNA barcoding as a crucial tool for precise and quick ant identification. A comprehensive study of these areas, extensive sampling of unidentified taxa, and the use of DNA technology will increase the identification of specific species in semi-arid habitats.