The leaf beetle, Lema decempunctata Gebler, 1829 is a significant leaf-feeding pest in the organic production of goji berry, Lycium barbarum. Here, we characterized the first complete mitochondrial genome of L. decempunctata. Its genome is 16,536bp in length and consists of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, and a control region. Additionally, we reconstructed Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum-likelihood (ML) phylogenetic trees to elucidate the phylogenetic position of Criocerinae within the Chrysomelidae based on nucleotide sequences of the 13 PCGs. Both trees generated identical topologies: all examined Criocerinae species were recovered as a well-supported monophyletic clade. The complete mitochondrial genome of L. decempunctata will provide a valuable molecular resource for species identification and further investigations into the phylogenetic relationships within Criocerinae.
Feng et al. (Sun,) studied this question.