Pentatomoidea is the largest superfamily of Pentatomomorpha; however, the phylogenetic relationships among pentatomoid families have been debated for a long time. In the present study, we gathered the mitogenomes of 55 species from eight common families (Acanthosomatidae, Cydnidae, Dinidoridae, Scutelleridae, Tessaratomidae, Plataspidae, Urostylididae and Pentatomidae), including 20 newly sequenced mitogenomes, and conducted comparative mitogenomic studies with an emphasis on the structures of non-coding regions. Heterogeneity in the base composition, and contrasting evolutionary rates were encountered among the mitogenomes in Pentatomoidea, especially in Urostylididae, which may lead to unstable phylogenetic topologies. When the family Urostylididae is excluded in taxa sampling or the third codon positions of protein coding genes are removed, phylogenetic analyses under site-homogenous models could provide more stable tree topologies. However, the relationships between families remained the same in all PhyloBayes analyses under the site-heterogeneous mixture model CAT + GTR with different datasets and were recovered as (Cydnidae + (((Tessaratomidae + Dinidoridae) + (Plataspidae + Scutelleridae)) + ((Acanthosomatidae + Urostylididae) + Pentatomidae)))). Our study showed that data optimizing strategies after heterogeneity assessments based on denser sampling and the use of site-heterogeneous mixture models are essential for further analysis of the phylogenetic relationships of Pentatomoidea.

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The lychee stinkbug Mattiphus splendidus is an important pest which mainly distributed in southern China. In this study, we sequenced and described the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of M. splendidus , which is the first record in the genus Mattiphus. This mitogenome is 15,973 bp long and comprises of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, and a control region. Gene order is identical to that of the putative ancestral arrangement of insects. All protein-coding genes initiate with ATN, expect ND1 and COI use GTG or TTG as start codons and terminate with TAG or TAA, expect COI and COIII use TA or a single T residue as the stop codon. All tRNAs, ranging from 62 to 74 bp, can be folded into typical clover-leaf structure expect for tRNA Ser(GCU) and tRNA Val . The control region is 1,357 bp long with 73.5% A + T content. The phylogenetic analysis supports the monophyly of Tessaratomidae and the sister relationship between M. splendidus and Eusthenes cupreus .

Background Species in the subfamily Aphidiinae from the Braconidae of Hymenoptera are endoparasitic wasps that exclusively utilize aphids as hosts. Some Aphidiinae species are widely used as biological agents. However, there were only one species with determined complete mitochondrial genome from this subfamily. Methods and results In this study, we sequenced and annotated the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Binodoxys acalephae, which was 15,116 bp in size and contained 37 genes. The start codon of 13 protein-coding genes was ATN, and the complete stop codon TAA and TAG was widely assigned to 11 protein-coding genes. The lrRNA contains 43 stem-loop structures, and srRNA contains 25 stem-loop structures. Translocation and inversion of tRNA genes was found to be dominant in B. acalephae. In contrast to Aphidius gifuensis from the same subfamily Aphidiinae, inverted tRNALeu1 was translocated to the gene cluster between tRNALeu2 and COX2, and the control region between tRNAIle and tRNAMet was deleted in the mitogenome of B. acalephae. Within Braconidae, gene clusters tRNATrp-tRNACys-tRNATyr and CR-tRNAIle-tRNAGln-tRNAMet were hotspots for gene rearrangement. Phylogenetic analysis showed that both Bayesian and maximum-likelihood methods recovered the monophyly of Aphidiinae and suggested that Aphidiinae formed sister clades with the remaining subfamilies. The phylogenetic analyses of nine subfamilies supported the monophyly of Cyclostomes and Noncyclostomes in Braconidae. Conclusion The arrangement of mitochondrial genes and the phylogenetic relationships among nine Braconidae subfamilies were constructed better to understand the diversity and evolution of Aphidiinae mitogenomes.

The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of the assassin bug, Sycanus croceovittatus, was sequenced and analyzed in the present study. This mitogenome spans 15,644 bp in size with a high A þ T content (71.7%), containing 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, and a putative control region. All protein-coding genes are initiated by ATN codons expect ND1 use GTG as start codons and terminated with TAG or TAA, expect COX3 use a single T--residue as the stop codon. All tRNAs have the typical clover-leaf like structures except for tRNA Ser(AGN) . A phylogenetic analysis of S. croceovittatus and 33 other assassin bugs is also presented using 13 protein-coding genes and 2 rRNA genes. The result supports the monophyly of Harpactorinae and the sister relationship between S. croceovittatus and Agriosphodrus dohrni.