Comparative mitochondrial genome analysis of Eudocima salaminia (Cramer, 1777) (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea), novel gene rearrangement and phylogenetic relationship within the superfamily Noctuoidea

The species Eudocima salaminia (Cramer, 1777) commonly known as the fruit-piercing moth belongs to family Erebidae. Its distribution varies from India and across South-east Asia, pacific islands and parts of Australia. The insect is a devastating pest of citrus, longans and lychees. In the present study, complete mitochondrial genome of Eudocima salaminia was sequenced and analyzed using Illumina sequencer. The phylogenetic tree was reconstructed based on nucleotide sequences of 13 PCGs using Maximum likelihood method-General Reversible mitochondrial (mtREV) model. The mitogenome has 15,597 base pairs (bp) in length, comprising of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, two ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes and A + T-rich region. All protein-coding genes (PCGs) initiate with canonical start codon ATN. The gene order (trnQ-trnI-trnM) of tRNA shows a different rearrangement compared to ancestral insect gene order (trnI-trnQ-trnM). Almost all tRNAs have a typical cloverleaf secondary structure except for trnS1 (AGN) which lacks the dihydrouridine arm. At the beginning of the control region, we observed a conserved polyT”, motif “ATTTA” and microsatellite (TA)n element. There are 21 intergenic regions and five overlapping regions ranging from 1 to 73 bp and 1 to 8 bp, respectively. The phylogenetic relationships based on nucleotide sequences of 13 PCGs using Maximum likelihood method showed the family level relationships as (Notodontidae + (Euteliidae + Noctuidae + (Erebidae + Nolidae))). The present study represents the similarity to phylogenetic analysis of Noctuoidea mitogenome. Moreover, the family Erebidae is the sister to the families of (Euteliidae + Noctuidae + Nolidae).