How long can bee specimen be left in pan trap under sub-tropical conditions without compromising its extractable genomic DNA quality and quantity

Identification of bee species for studying their diversity in various regions through molecular taxonomy is essentially the first step. Pan traps filled with detergent solution are primarily and widely being used as a passive method of sampling bee species. Samples decaying due to high temperature and humidity under subtropical conditions is a major constraint for employing this method of trapping bees. Thus, an experiment was conducted to know the suitability of a pan trap caught bee specimens sampled at various time intervals for extraction of genomic DNA (gDNA) for molecular studies. The present study revealed that the bee samples can be left in pan traps (3% detergent in water; pH=6.5-7.5) for 11 and 3 days during summer and rainy seasons, respectively. At this time, the concentration of extracted gDNA was 467.97 and 588.43 ng/μl, respectively. In both the cases, the purity of genomic DNA was within the specified range. On subsequent days, amplification of mitochondrial DNA through PCR using universal primer i.e., LCO/HCO declined as it was evident from the amplicon brightness which was directly proportional to the corresponding concentration of genomic DNA. The present findings revealed that the bee samples can be left for 11 and 3 days in pan traps during summer and rainy seasons, respectively without compromising the quality and quantity of extracted gDNA.