Abstract
Banana leaf roller, Erionota thrax thrax, is an example of plant-insect interaction in a cultivated banana that distributes in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia. This subspecies was determined previously based on the morphological character only. The genetic characteristic based on molecular data and genetic diversity had never been accessed for this important pest. This study aimed to (1) characterize the identity of E. t. thrax based on the Cytochrome C Oxidase Subunit I (COI) gene sequence; (2) explore a genetic variation in haplotype diversity of the COI gene. We reconstructed phylogenetic relationships and determined the entire population's haplotype using MrBayes Version 3.2.6, MEGA X, and DnaSP v5. The Bayesian tree showed that this subspecies consists of two clades, i.e., Sundaland population and Sulawesi population clades. Moreover, there are six haplotypes in the Sundaland population and a single haplotype in the Sulawesi population. The genetic distance within E. t. thrax ranged from 0.002 to 0.008 in the Sundaland population, while that between the two populations ranged from 0.016 to 0.023. The scientific novelty of this study is that the COI gene sequences allow distinguishing the population of E. t. thrax between the Sunda and Wallaceae lines and tracing the origin of the Papuan population based on the similarity of its haplotype.