The complete mitochondrial genome of a medicinal insect, Hydrillodes repugnalis (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Erebidae), and related phylogenetic analysis

The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of an important medicinal insect Hydrillodes repugnalis (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea) was sequenced and analyzed. The mitogenome is circular with 15,570 bp long, and shows typical gene content and arrangement. Nucleotide composition is highly biased toward A + T nucleotides (81.1%). All protein-coding genes (PCGs) initiate with canonical start codon ATN, except for cox1 being CGA. The typical stop codon TAA is used for most PCGs, while the nad4l uses the TAG, and cox1 and cox2 use incomplete termination codon T. All tRNAs have a typical clover-leaf structure, except for trnS1 (AGN) lacking the dihydrouridine arm. Comparative mitogenome analysis showed that the motif “ATGATAA” between atp8 and atp6, and the motif “ATACTAA” between trnS2 and nad1 are commonly present in noctuoid mitogenomes. In A + T-rich regions, the motif “ATAGA” and subsequent poly-T structure, the motif “ATTTA” and followed macrosatellite (AT)n element and an “A”-rich 3′ end upstream of the trnM gene can be recognized across noctuoid mitogenomes. Phylogenetic analyses showed that H. repugnalis is nested into the Erebidae clade, consistently being sister to the Aganainae. Within Noctuoidea, the (Notodontidae + (Erebidae + (Nolidae + (Euteliidae + Noctuidae)))) was consistently recovered firstly based on multiple mitochondrial datasets.