Sample information

The insect was found in a grassy park in a highly urban environment near a large river, found under a rock in a cool, wet area.

The temperature at the location was 34 °C during summer, in a climate where warm summers and very cool winters are expected.

The insect has vertical ribbing along the top surface of the abdomen, it appears to have 6 legs, with medium-large mandibles given the body size. It has a very dark brown, almost black, exoskeleton, which appears with a slight red hue in certain lighting conditions. The limbs have a more red-brown color than the body.

Methods

DNA Extraction

The extraction procedure didn't have any observed errors. Due to the size of the insect, the abdomen was separated from the rest of the insect. A chunk of the exoskeleton came off the abdomen throughout this process; however, this shouldn't have any impact on the results. When grinding the arthropod, there were a few chunks left behind from the exoskeleton, which isn't important since all the abdominal tissue was ground sufficiently.

DNA Extraction

The extraction process went fairly well. The insect easily ground into a thin consistency. No errors were observed during the procedure, apart from an unknown amount of Buffer AW1 being added. However, that shouldn't matter as the amount is higher than 500ul, and it was being flowed through a filter at the end.

PCR & Gel electrophoresis

PCR was successful, with all controls returning the expected results. The gel electrophoresis was also successful; however, sample F1 on the CO1 gel had a very light line. This didn't impact results, however.

Results

All controls returned their expected results and there were no known sources of major contamination. Both gels resulted in clear results and sequencing was overall high quality.