Morphological and molecular characteristics of Liriomyza sp. (Diptera: Agromyzidae) on onion plants (Allium cepa L.) in Bali

Liriomyza sp.leafminerfly is an important pest of shallot crops that spread widely in Southeast Asia and Pacific regionssuch as Indonesia, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam. This study aims to identify the type of Liriomyzaspecies attackingonion plants in Bali, Indonesia through morphological and molecular characterization. Onion leaf samples showing symptoms of Liriomyzaattack, taken from the study site, were subsequently cultured in the laboratory. Adultflies obtained from breeding were then identified based on their morphological characteristics. While the molecular characteristics were identified through several steps: DNA isolation, DNA electrophoresis, PCR chain reaction, then put back into the re-electrophoresis box, and finally sequencing method was applied. The results showed that the Liriomyzaspecies was found to have a morphological characteristic such that it has a simple color pattern on a simple abdomen with no connecting line between the segments and the next segment, darkgrey or near black scutellum. These characteristics refer to the species L.chinensis. GenBank data tracking results through identification of squamous alignment results indicate that the LiriomyzaCOI nucleic acid found showed the highest homology with L. chinensis(EF104701.1), L. chinensis(AB721340.1) and L. chinensis(AB721343.1) with identical rate of 99%. Based on the results then Liriomyzaspecies found attackingonion planting on the island of Bali is L. chinensis.