The complete mitochondrial genome of the pirate butterfly Catacroptera cloanthe (Stoll, 1781) (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Kallimini)

Abstract

The pirate butterfly Catacroptera cloanthe (Stoll, 1781) (Nymphalidae: Kallimini) is a monotypic genus of butterfly that occupies grassland and savanna habitats in Sub-Saharan Africa, and exhibits seasonal variation. Genome skimming by Illumina sequencing allowed the assembly of a 78.8% AT-rich complete circular mitogenome of 15,204 bp from C. cloanthe. The mitogenome has a typical butterfly gene order consisting of 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNAs, 22 tRNAs, and a control region. Catacroptera cloanthe COX1 begins with an atypical CGA start codon, while COX2, ND3, ND4, and ND5 end with incomplete T or TA stop codons, completed by the addition of the poly-A tail during mRNA processing. Bayesian phylogenetic reconstruction placed Catacroptera cloanthe as sister to Mallika jacksoni in the monophyletic tribe Kallimini, which was consistent with previous phylogenetic hypotheses.

Keywords: Illumina sequencing; Kallimini; Lepidoptera; Nymphalidae; mitogenomes.

Figure 1.

Bayesian Inference phylogeny (GTR + I + G model, average deviation of split frequencies = 0.000639) of the Catacroptera cloanthe mitogenome, 29 additional mitogenomes from 11 tribes within subfamily Nymphalinae, and three outgroup species from other subfamilies within family Nymphalidae (Charaxinae (Polyura arja), Satyrinae (Coenonympha tulia), and Limenitidinae (Limenitis sydyi)) produced by 10 million MCMC iterations in MrBayes with sampling every 1000 generations. The Bayesian posterior probability values determined by MrBayes are given at each node.