Molecular Phylogenetics and Mitochondrial Genomic Evolution in the Endemic Genus Pielomastax (Orthoptera: Eumastacoidea) in China

Abstract

Background/Objectives: The genus Pielomastax Chang (Orthoptera: Eumastacoidea, 1937) is endemic to China, which is mainly distributed in low- and medium-altitude areas in central and eastern China. However, there are relatively few molecular data studies on the genus Pielomastax. Methods: In this study, three species of the genus Pielomastax were collected from Hubei and Henan, China, namely Pielomastax sp., Pielomastax shennongjiaensis Wang (1995) and Pielomastax tenuicerca Hsia and Liu (1989). Both Pielomastax sp. and Pielomastax shennongjiaensis were collected from the Shennongjia area of Hubei, but they exhibit some differences in morphological characteristics. Results: We obtained the mitochondrial genome structures of the three species, which were similar to those of the published mitochondrial genome structures of species within Eumastacoidea with 37 typical mitochondrial genes, including 13 PCGs, 22 tRNAs, and 2 ribosomal RNAs. The results of the maximum likelihood (ML) tree and the Bayesian inference (BI) tree showed that the families Eumastacidae, Chorotypidae and Episactinae in Eumastacoidea are a monophyletic group, and Thericleinae and Episactinae are sister clades. The time-calibrated phylogeny results indicated that the divergence time between Thericleinae and Episactinae was 95.58 Ma (56.71–128.02 Ma). Conclusions: These phylogenetic tree results indicate that Pielomastax sp. and Pielomastax shennongjiaensis are the same species. And the time-calibrated phylogeny tree and the species distribution map of the genus Pielomastax indicate that the species of the genus Pielomastax spread from eastern to central China and diversified. These studies fill the gap in molecular data for the genus Pielomastax and the taxonomic status of Episactidae.