The complete mitochondrial genome of the Golden Birdwing butterfly Troides aeacus: insights into phylogeny and divergence times of the superfamily Papilionoidea

Abstract

BackgroundThe Lepidoptera is one of the largest insect orders. Previous studies on the evolution of Lepidoptera did not confidently place butterflies, and many relationships among superfamilies in the megadiverse clade Ditrysia remain largely uncertain. Here, we generated a molecular dataset with 78 species of lepidopterian insects, including a new complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequences of the Golden Birdwing Butterfly, Troides aeacus, which was listed in appendix II of CITES. MethodsBased on the concatenated nucleotide sequences of 13 protein-coding genes, we constructed phylogenetic trees with Bayesian Inference (BI) and Maximum Likelihood (ML) methods, and calculated the divergence times of Lepidoptera. ResultsMonophyly of the Papilionoidea including skippers (Hesperiidae) is strongly supported by a high bootstrap value. Butterflies were placed sister to the remaining obtectomeran Lepidoptera, and the latter was grouped with high bootstrap supports. Additionally, Papilionidae probably diverged from the group (Hesperiidae + (Nymphalidae + Pieridae)) at 102.65 Mya, the Early Cretaceous. T. aeacus and the Golden kaiserihind Teinopalpus aureus diverged in the Cretaceous of 85.32 Mya. The age of Papilionoidea indicates that the primary break up of Gondwana may have an effect on the current distributions of butterflies.