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Table 1 Overview of assignment criteria used in this study

From: When species matches are unavailable are DNA barcodes correctly assigned to higher taxa? An assessment using sphingid moths

Criteriaa

Requirements for "Positive" Assignment of Q (query)b, c

"Liberal"

Q is sister to a single member of a taxon, (Aus aus, Q), or a clade of members of a single taxon, ((Aus aus, Aus bus)Q), the assignment is that of the taxon Aus.

"Strict"

Q is nested within a clade comprising of members of a single taxon, (Aus aus, Q)Aus bus), the assignment is that of the taxon Aus.

"Liberal & exclusive"

Q is sister to a single member of a taxon, (Aus bus, Q), or a clade of members of a single taxon, ((Aus aus, Aus bus)Q), and members of taxon, Aus, are not found elsewhere on the tree except in an Aus+Q clade, the assignment is that of the taxon Aus.

"Strict & exclusive"

Q is nested within a clade of a single taxon, ((Aus aus, Q)Aus bus), and members of Aus are not found elsewhere on the tree except in an Aus+Q clade, the assignment is that of the taxon Aus.

"Best match"

Q is simply assigned to the genus of the most similar library sequence based on K2P distance.

"Best close match"

Q is assigned to the genus of the most similar library sequence based on K2P distance provided it falls below a threshold value.

  1. a The first four criteria are tree-based criteria, the last two are non-tree-based criteria.
  2. b When the requirements for a positive assignment were not met, then Q was unassignable (i.e. "ambiguous").
  3. c The examples given refer to genus assignments but were extended to tribe and subfamily using the exact same requirements.