In this study, the complete mitochondrial genomes of four pierid butterfly species, namely Batltia butleri, Talbotia naganum, Pontia callidice and P. daplidice, were newly sequenced and characterized. Meanwhile the phylogenetic relationships of the main Pieridae lineages covering 22 pierid butterfly species, were reconstructed with Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods based on different mitogenomic datasets, including the concatenated 13 PCGs, 13 PCGs ＋ 2 rRNAs, 2 rRNAs, 2 rRNAs ＋ 22 tRNAs and 22 tRNAs sequences, respectively. Our results of mitogenomic analysis showed that the four mitogenomes were 15,124, 15,155, 15,109, 15,124 bp in size, with the gene orders and arangements identical to all other butterflies determined. Our results of phylogenetic analyses upon protein coding genes, rRNA genes or their sequence combinations indicated that the three pierid subfamilies of this study were all monophyletic, with their relationships of being（Dismorphiinae,（Pierinae, Coliadinae））; the phylogenetic relationship of Pierini of this study was（Pieris,（Baltia,（Talbotia, Pontia））） ＋（Prioneris,（Delias, Aporia））. Additionally, our analyses suggested that only mitogenomic t RNA sequence datasets were not ready to be utilized in resolving the deeper phylogeny, whereas somewhat suitable to be applied in clarifying the phylogenies of closely related species, of the pierid butterflies.
Lan NieYunliang WangDunyuan HuangRuisong TaoChengyong SuJiasheng HaoChaodong Zhu
The Riodinidae is one of the lepidopteran butterfly families.This study describes the complete mitochondrial genome of the butterfly species Abisara fylloides,the first mitochondrial genome of the Riodinidae family.The results show that the entire mitochondrial genome of A.fylloides is 15301 bp in length,and contains 13 protein-coding genes,2 ribosomal RNA genes,22 transfer RNA genes and a 423 bp A+T-rich region.The gene content,orientation and order are identical to the majority of other lepidopteran insects.Phylogenetic reconstruction was conducted using the concatenated 13 protein-coding gene(PCG)sequences of 19 available butterfly species covering all the five butterfly families(Papilionidae,Nymphalidae,Peridae,Lycaenidae and Riodinidae).Both maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses highly supported the monophyly of Lycaenidae+Riodinidae,which was standing as the sister of Nymphalidae.In addition,we propose that the riodinids be categorized into the family Lycaenidae as a subfamilial taxon.
Fang ZHAODun-Yuan HUANGXiao-Yan SUNQing-Hui SHIJia-Sheng HAOLan-Lan ZHANGQun YANG
The complete mitochondrial genome of the Parathyma sulpitia （Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Limenitidinae） was determined. The entire mitochondrial DNA （mtDNA） molecule was 15 268 bp in size. Its gene content and organization were the same as those of other lepidopteran species, except for the presence of the 121 bp long intergenic spacer between trnSI（AGN）and trnE. The 13 protein-coding genes （PCGs） started with the typical ATN codon, with the exception of the coxl gene that used CGA as its initial codon. In addition, all protein-coding genes terminated at the common stop codon TAA, except the nad4 gene which used a single T as its terminating codon. All 22 tRNA genes possessed the typical clover leaf secondary structure except for trnSI（AGN）, which had a simple loop with the absence of the DHU stem. Excluding the A＋T-rich region, the mtDNA genome of P. sulpitia harbored 11 intergenic spacers, the longest of which was 121 bp long with the highest A＋T content （100%）, located between trnSI（AGN） and trnE. As in other lepidopteran species, there was an 18-bp poly-T stretch at the 3＇-end of the A＋T-rich region, and there were a few short microsatellite-like repeat regions without conspicuous macro-repeats in the A＋T-rich region. The phylogenetic analyses of the published complete mt genomes from nine Nymphalidae species were conducted using the concatenated sequences of 13 PCGs with maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods. The results indicated that Limenitidinae was a sister to the Heliconiinae among the main Nymphalidae lineages in this study, strongly supporting the results of previous molecular data, while contradicting speculations based on morphological characters.
The Riodinidae is one of the lepidopteran butterfly families. This study describes the complete mitochondrial genome of the butterfly species Abisara fylloides, the first mitochondrial genome of the Riodinidae family. The results show that the entire mitochondrial genome of A. fylloides is 15301 bp in length, and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and a 423 bp A＋T-rich region. The gene content, orientation and order are identical to the majority of other lepidopteran insects. Phylogenetic reconstruction was conducted using the concatenated 13 protein-coding gene （PCG） sequences of 19 available butterfly species covering all the five butterfly families （Papilionidae, Nymphalidae, Peridae, Lycaenidae and Riodinidae）. Both maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses highly supported the monophyly of Lycaenidae＋Riodinidae, which was standing as the sister of Nymphalidae. In addition, we propose that the riodinids be categorized into the family Lycaenidae as a subfamilial taxon.
Fang ZHAODun-Yuan HUANGXiao-Yan SUNQing-Hui SHIJia-Sheng HAOLan-Lan ZHANGQun YANG
