Mitochondrial genomes of the sheep blowfly, Lucilia sericata, and the secondary blowfly, Chrysomya megacephala

Abstract

This paper presents complete mitochondrial genomes for the sheep blowfly, Lucilia sericata (Meigen), and the secondary blowfly, Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius). Both L. sericata and C. megacephala had standard dipteran-type mitochondrial genome architectures and lengths of 15 945 bp and 15 831 bp, respectively. Additionally, C. megacephala possessed a tRNA duplication either side of the D-loop, as previously reported in another Chrysomya species, C. putoria; this duplication appears to be synapomorphic for the genus Chrysomya. As in other insect mitochondrial genomes, base compositions had a high AT content, with both genomes more than 76% AT-rich. © 2008 The Authors.