Comparative and Phylogenetic Analyses of Mitochondrial Genomes in Carabidae (Coleoptera: Adephaga)

The ground beetle represents one of the largest families in Coleoptera and is the main object of various ecological studies. However, the phylogeny of Carabidae remains unresolved, with insufficient publicly available mitogenomic data and persistent issues of misidentifications. In this study, six complete mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) from the genus Harpalus are reported, ranging from 16,066 to 16,948 bp in length and containing 37 typical genes and a control region. Combined with previously reported mitogenomic data, we found all protein-coding genes (PCGs) initiated with standard start codons ATN or TTG and ended with TAN or an incomplete stop codon single T. Evolutionary rate analysis (Ka/Ks) revealed atp8 was the fastest-evolving gene, whereas cox1 was the slowest. Additionally, 13 cases of suspected misidentifications in public Carabidae mitogenomes from GenBank were identified, with potential corrections suggested. Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood approaches were used to infer the phylogenetic relationships within Carabidae based on 121 mitogenomes and various datasets. The results confirmed the distinct separation of Cicindelidae from Carabidae. Within Carabidae, most subfamilies were supported as monophyletic, except Licininae and Platyninae. However, inter-subfamily relationships remain poorly resolved, with Carabinae and Nebriinae consistently occupying basal positions and Harpalinae s. l. positioned terminally across different topologies. Our results provided more insights into the phylogenetic relationships within Carabidae, while expanding mitogenomic and genomic data across carabid lineages is crucial to resolve the uncertain phylogenetic relationships within this important beetle clade.