Hokkaido National Fisheries Research Institute, Kushiro, Hokkaido 085-0802, Japan
The partial sequences of the cytochrome oxidase I gene (COI) (709 bp) and ITS region (1,180-1,330 bp) were obtained from three Atelecyclidae species (Erimacrus isenbeckii, Telmessus cheiragonus, Telmessus acutidens). Species-specific internal primers were designed to allow discrimination among the three species by the amplicon size. Combination of these mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers may be applicable not only for species identification at any development stage but also for detecting hybrid individuals and parental species.