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. 2025 Sep 2;10(10):909-913.
doi: 10.1080/23802359.2025.2554217. eCollection 2025.

Complete mitochondrial genome of the firefly Luciola parvula Kiesenwetter (Coleoptera, Lampyridae) from Japan and its phylogenetic analyses

Yuki Selene Saito  1   2   3   4 , Yuki Kaneko-Ochi  1 , Masayuki Iigo  1   2   5   6   7   3
Affiliations

Complete mitochondrial genome of the firefly Luciola parvula Kiesenwetter (Coleoptera, Lampyridae) from Japan and its phylogenetic analyses

Yuki Selene Saito et al. Mitochondrial DNA B Resour. .

Abstract

We have sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of the firefly Luciola parvula Kiesenwetter, 1874 (Coleoptera, Lampyridae, Luciolinae) from Niigata Prefecture, Honshu, Japan, and inferred the Luciolinae phylogeny. The circular genome of 16,685 bp (GenBank accession number, LC677171) has a base composition of A (43.52%), C (13.21%), G (8.52%) and T (34.74%). Our sequence is similar to other Metazoa, which contains 13 protein coding genes (PCGs), 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and D-loop. Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial whole genome sequences revealed L. parvula as a sister group of (L. unmunsana [MT134039] + L. parvula [OL944082]). Identity of the two L. parvula sequences (LC677171 and OL944082) is only 90.5% (14,064/15,537 bp), suggesting the two L. parvula might be different species. Further taxonomical examination including morphological analyses should be required to test if the two populations are different species.

Keywords: Firefly; Luciola parvula; Luciolinae; mitogenome; molecular phylogenetic analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Photographs of a male Luciola parvula. Left, dorsal view; right, ventral view. These photographs were taken by the corresponding author (Masayuki Iigo).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Gene map of the mitochondrial genome for Luciola parvula (DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank accession number: LC677171). Arrows indicate the orientation of gene transcription. Protein coding sequences (CDS), tRNA, rRNA and D-loop are marked with different colors. The tRNAs are labeled according to the three-letter amino acid codes.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Molecular phylogenetic ML tree for the subfamily Luciolinae. The numbers above the branch meant bootstrap value (1000 replicates). GenBank accession numbers of complete mitochondrial genomes of luciolinae used are as follows: Emeia pseudosauteri, MK292112 (Chen et al. 2019); Asymmetricata circumdata, KX229747 (Luan and Fu 2016); Curtos bilineatus, MK292114 (Chen et al. 2019); Pteroptyx maipo, MF686051 (Fan and Fu 2017); inflata indica, MH427718 (Sriboonlert and Wonnapinij 2019); Pygoluciola qingyu, MK292093 (Chen et al. 2019); Abscondita cerata, MW751423 (Wang et al. 2021); Abscondita anceyi, MH020192 (Hu and Fu 2018b); Abscondita terminalis, MK292092 (Chen et al. 2019); Sclerotia substriata (formerly, Luciola substriata), KP313820 (Mu et al. 2016); Nipponoluciola cruciata (formerly, Luciola cruciata), AB849456 (Maeda et al. 2017a); Aquatica lateralis (formerly, Luciola lateralis), LC306678 (Maeda et al. 2017b); Aquatica wuhana, KX758086 (Wang et al. 2017); Aquatica ficta, KX758085 (Wang et al. 2017); aquatica leii, KF667531 (Jiao et al. 2015); Luciola kagiana, OQ184181; Luciola curtithorax, MG770613 (Hu and Fu 2018a); Luciola unmunsana, MT134039 (Kim et al. 2020); Luciola parvula, OL944082. Lampyrinae (Pyrocoelia rufa, AF452048, Bae et al. ; Pyrocoelia thibetana, MK292117) is used as an outgroup.
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