Comparative analysis of the mitochondrial genome of Hypospila bolinoides and Lygephila dorsigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Erebidae), with implications for their phylogeny

To analyse the phylogenetic relationships of members of the family Erebidae, the mitogenomes of two species namely, Hypospila bolinoides Guenee, 1852 and Lygephila dorsigera (Walker, 1865) were sequenced. H. bolinoides and L. dorsigera have circular genomes that are 15,640 bp and 15,567 bp long, respectively. Despite their diff erent lengths, both genomes contain an identical gene order, which includes 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes and an A+T-rich region. The nucleotide composition of the H. bolinoides mitogenome vis-a-vis the A+T rich region was 80.08%, which is higher than that of L. dorsigera (78.03%). The AT skew and GC skew were mostly negative for both species. The A+T-rich regions of H. bolinoides and L. dorsigera were 287 bp and 383 bp long, respectively, and confi ned to common characteristics of Noctuoidea. Concatenated sequences of 13 PCGs from 170 taxa belonging to the fi ve families of the superfamily Noctuoidea and two butterfl y mitogenomes used as outgroups were utilized for Bayesian inference (BI) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) analyses. The fi rst-ever comprehensive analysis of the mitogenomes of the genera Lygephila (Billberg, 1820) and Hypospila (Guenee, 1852) revealed that the superfamily Noctuoidea has a well supported monophyletic relationship with (Notodontidae + (Erebidae + (Nolidae + (Euteliidae + Noctuidae))). In support of previous partial genome analyses, the present study provides phylogenomic evidence that L. dorsigera, hitherto classifi ed as a member of the subfamily Erebinae, can be placed within the subfamily Toxocampinae.