Complete mitochondrial genome of an enigmatic dragonfly, Epiophlebia superstes (Odonata, Epiophlebiidae)

Abstract

This study reported the 15,435 bp-long complete mitochondrial genome of the relict Epiophlebia superstes (Odonata, Epiophlebiidae), an enigmatic dragonfly of the paraphyletic ‘Anisozygoptera’ possessing characteristics similar to members of both extant odonate suborders, the Zygoptera and the Anisoptera. This mitogenome comprises the common set of 37 genes and an A + T-rich control region, and has a gene arrangement identical to those of all available odonates. The genome contains three non-coding inter-genic spacers (s1–s3), which occurs in all of other known odonates, but it lacks the inter-genic spacer s5 typically found in the Anisoptera. This result suggests that E. superstes possesses a mitogenmic organization more closely related to that of the Zygoptera than that of the Anizoptera.

• Anisoptera
• Anisozygoptera
• living fossil
• inter-genic spacer
• synapomorphy
• Zygoptera

Acknowledgements

We thank Keitaro Harusawa, Takuya Kiyoshi, Katsuyuki Kohno, Shosuke Shimura, Wataru Toki, and Sadayuki Ugai for their help in collecting dragonflies.