To date, a relatively complete classification of Sphingidae (Lepidoptera) has been generated, but the phylogeny of the family remains need to be fully resolved. Some phylogenetic relationships within Sphingidae still remains uncertain, especially the taxonomic status of the subfamily Langiinae and its sole included genus and species, Langia zenzeroides. To begin to address this problem, we generated nine new complete mitochondrial genomes, including that of Langia, and together with that of Theretra oldenlandiae from our previous study and 25 other Sphingidae mitogenomes downloaded from GenBank, analyzed the phylogenetic relationships of Sphingidae and investigated the mitogenomic differences among members of the Langiinae, Sphinginae, Smerinthinae and Macroglossinae. The mitogenomes of Sphingidae varied from 14995 bp to 15669 bp in length. The gene order of all newly sequenced mitogenomes was identical, containing 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and the A + T-rich region. Nucleotide composition was A + T biased, and all the protein-coding genes exhibited a positive AT-skew, which was reflected in the nucleotide composition, codon, and amino acid usage. The A + T-rich region was comprised of nonrepetitive sequences, which contained regulatory elements related to the control of replication and transcription. We analyzed concatenated gene sequences, with third codon positions of protein coding genes and rRNAs excluded, using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference techniques. All four currently recognized subfamilies were recovered as monophyletic but in contrast to the most recent studies, our preferred tree placed Langiinae as the first subfamily to diverge within Sphingidae rather as sister to Smerinthinae + Sphinginae. Our results also support the removal of the genus Barbourion from the smerinthine tribe Ambulycini to an unresolved position in "Smerinthinae incertae sedis".

This paper explores the phylogeny of the delphacid subfamily Delphacinae based on nuclear ribosomal and mitochondrial DNA sequences of four genetic loci (16S rDNA, 28S rDNA, Cytochrome oxidase I and Cytochrome b). Maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses yield robust phylogenetic trees. The topologies support the monophyly of Delphacinae and its basal split into three tribes, and provisionally support subdividing Delphacini into three clades, including a more broadly defined Numatina. The tribe Tropidocephalini is divided into two clades. In addition, Paranectopia is transferred from Tropidocephalini to Delphacini and Harmalia syn. nov. is regarded as a junior synonym of Opiconsiva. The genera Bambusiphaga, Megadelphax and Muirodelphax are found to be paraphyletic. The estimated time to the most recent common ancestor of Delphacinae is roughly at 90 million years ago in Late Cretaceous.

Studies of mitochondrial genomes have a wide range of applications in phylogeny, population genetics, and evolutionary biology. In this study, we sequenced and analyzed the mitochondrial genome of Ooencyrtus plautus Huang & Noyes, 1994 (Hymenoptera, Encyrtidae). The nearly complete mitogenome of O. plautus was 15,730 bp in size, including 13 PCGs (protein-coding genes), 22 tRNAs, 2 rRNAs, and a nearly complete control region. The nucleotide composition was significantly biased toward adenine and thymine, with an A + T content of 84.6%. We used the reference sequence of Chouioia cunea and calculated the Ka/Ks ratio for each set of PCGs. The highest value of the Ka/Ks ratio within 13 PCGs was found in nad2 with 1.1, suggesting that they were subjected to positive selection. This phenomenon was first discovered in Encyrtidae. Compared with other encyrtid mitogenomes, a translocation of trnW was found in O. plautus, which was the first of its kind to be reported in Encyrtidae. Comparing with ancestral arrangement pattern, wasps reflect extensive gene rearrangements. Although these insects have a high frequency of gene rearrangement, species from the same family and genus tend to have similar gene sequences. As the number of sequenced mitochondrial genomes in Chalcidoidea increases, we summarize some of the rules of gene rearrangement in Chalcidoidea, that is four gene clusters with frequent gene rearrangements. Ten mitogenomes were included to reconstruct the phylogenetic trees of Encyrtidae based on both 13 PCGs (nucleotides of protein coding genes) and AA matrix (amino acids of protein coding genes) using the maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods. The phylogenetic tree reconstructed by Bayesian inference based on AA data set showed that Aenasius arizonensis and Metaphycus eriococci formed a clade representing Tetracneminae. The remaining six species formed a monophyletic clade representing Encyrtinae. In Encyrtinae, Encyrtus forms a monophyletic clade as a sister group to the clade formed by O. plautus and Diaphorencyrtus aligarhensis. Encyrtus sasakii and Encyrtus rhodooccisiae were most closely related species in this monophyletic clade. In addition, gene rearrangements can provide a valuable information for molecular phylogenetic reconstruction. These results enhance our understanding of phylogenetic relationships among Encyrtidae.

One new species of the genus Conostigmus Dahlbom, 1858, Conostigmus xui Cui and Wang sp. nov., from China is described. A key to the known species of Conostigmus from China is provided.

A new species of the megaspiline genus Conostigmus Dahlbom with a distinct facial sulcus is described and figured from material collected in yellow pan traps. Conostigmus nankunensis Qian and Wang sp. nov., is the fifth species of Conostigmus described from China.