Phylogenetic analysis of the complete mitochondrial genome of the graphic beauty butterfly Baeotus beotus (Doubleday 1849) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae: Coeini)

Abstract

The graphic beauty butterfly Baeotus beotus (Doubleday 1849) (Nymphalidae: Coeini) is a rare fruit feeding species that inhabits humid tropical forests in Central and South America. Genome skimming by Illumina sequencing allowed assembly of a complete circular mitogenome of 15,131 bp from B. beotus consisting of 80.4% AT nucleotides, 22 tRNAs, 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNAs and a control region in the typical butterfly gene order. Baeotus beotus COX1 features an atypical CGA start codon and COX1, COX2, ND1, and ND4 exhibit incomplete stop codons completed by the addition of 3’ A residues to the mRNA. Bayesian phylogenetic reconstruction places B. beotus as sister to Cyrestis thyodamas (Cyrestini), which is consistent with previous phylogenetic hypotheses.