Raw data for Nibouche et al. (2021) 'Morphometric and molecular discrimination of the sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner, 1897), and the sorghum aphid Melanaphis sorghi (Theobald, 1904)'

Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner) and Melanaphis sorghi (Theobald) are major worldwide crop pests causing direct feeding damage on sorghum and transmitting viruses to sugarcane. It is common in the scientific literature to consider these two species as synonyms, referred to as ‘Sugarcane Aphid’, although no formal study has validated this synonymy. In this study, based on the comparison of samples collected from the whole distribution area, we use both morphometric and molecular data to better characterize the delineation between M. sacchari and M. sorghi. Unsupervised multivariate analysis of morphometric data clearly confirmed the separation of both species. The most discriminating characters separating both species were based on the length of the antenna processus terminalis relative to the length of hind tibia, siphuncula or cauda. However, none of these criteria alone allow an unambiguous identification. Bayesian clustering based on microsatellite data delimited two clusters, which corresponded to the species separation. The DNA sequencing of three nuclear and three mitochondrial regions revealed a very little divergence between both species. In particular, the COI barcoding region proved to be of limited usefulness for species separation. One SNP located on the nuclear EF1-α gene was diagnostic for species separation. Based on morphological and molecular evidence, the sorghum damaging invasive genotype recently introduced in the USA, Mexico and Caribbean since 2013 is found to be M. sorghi.