Complete mitochondrial genome of the spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula White, 1845 (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae)

Abstract The spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula White, 1845 (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae), is an invasive pest that attacks forest as well as agricultural trees. We sequenced the 15,798-bp long complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of this species; it consists of a typical set of genes (13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, and 22 tRNA genes) and one major non-coding A + T-rich region. The orientation and gene order of the L. delicatula mitogenome are identical to that of the ancestral type found in majority of the insects. Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum-likelihood (ML) phylogeny placed the L. delicatula examined in our study, together with other geographical samples of the species in a group with the highest nodal support, forming the subfamily Aphaeninae to which L. delicatula belongs.


Introduction
The spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula White, 1845 (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae), is native to northern China (Liu 1939) and was detected as an exotic species in South Korea in 2004 (Kim and Kim 2005) and in Pennsylvania, USA in 2015 . This pest damages a wide variety of forest trees, and particularly the agricultural grape tree, by feeding on the phloem sap and secreting honeydew, thereby inhibiting transpiration and leading to growth of sooty mold on the trees (Han et al. 2008;Lee et al. 2009;Park et al. 2009;Dara et al. 2015).
In previous studies, mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase (ND) subunit 2 (ND2) and ND6 regions were analyzed from specimens collected from China, Korea, and Japan (Kim et al. 2013). However, specimens from Korea and Japan revealed identical sequences, warranting the need for variable markers for population genetics data.

Methods
For our study, one wild adult lanternfly was caught on the tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) in the Nam-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, Republic of Korea (35 05 0 07.2 00 N, 126 52 0 02.0 00 E) and its DNA was extracted from one of the hind legs. Leftover DNA and the specimen were deposited at the Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea, under the accession number CNU11113.
Using the extracted DNA, four long overlapping fragments (LFs: COI-trnN, COIII-CytB, ND6-srRNA, and lrRNA-COI) were amplified using four sets of primers designed using data regarding the previously published species of Fulgoroidea, with special consideration for geographically close specimens of L. delicatula, published in earlier studies Song et al. 2012). Using the LFs as templates, 36 overlapping short fragments (SF) were amplified using the aforementioned primers.

Results
The L. delicatula mitogenome was found to be 15,789 bp in length, with typical gene sets -2 rRNAs, 22 tRNAs, and 13 PCGsand a major non-coding A þ T-rich region of 1495 bp length (GenBank accession number MN607209), whereas previous studies showed that the mitogenome was 15,946 bp long 15,410 bp (Hua et al. 2009). The largest size variation was detected in the A þ T-rich region (1043 bp in Hua et al. (2009), 1495 bp in this study, and 1642 bp in Song et al. (2012)). The gene arrangement of L. delicatula was identical to that of the ancestral type found in majority of the insects (Boore 1999).
Phylogenetic analyses using both, BI and ML methods, using 13 PCGs and two rRNAs, placed L. delicatula from Korea, along with previously analyzed geographical samples, into one group, with the highest nodal support in both analyses. The subfamily Aphaeninae, to which L. delicatula belongs, forms a cohesive monophyletic group with the highest nodal supports indicated by BI and ML analyses.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflicts of interest are reported by the authors.