Similar morphology and high genetic diversity poses problems in phylogenetic studies of insects. To solve these problems, mitochondrial based markers have been adopted and are increasingly used as molecular markers for phylogenetic studies. Varied markers have been used for different species of insects, viz., markers for 16S r RNA, 12S r RNA, ND (1-6 genes), ATPase and control regions. Among which protein coding gene, CO-1 is found to be best because of its advantage over others whereas, AT rich region of mitochondrial DNA is the least used marker. A recent advanced technology in phylogenetic analysis; namely mitogenomics have greatly improved this research field. This short review attempted to summarize recent studies on the application of various mitochondrial molecular markers for phylogenetic study of insects.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Himalayan bee Apis laboriosa, from Mizoram, India, has been sequenced using Illumina NextSeq500 platform and analysed. The mitogenome was assembled and found to be 15 266 bp in length and the gene arrangement is similar to other honey bee species. The A. laboriosa mitogenome comprises of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNAs, 2 rRNAs and an A + T-rich region of 346 bp. Based on the concatenated PCGs, in the phylogenetic tree, A. laboriosa is placed as a sister group along with the cavity nesting honey bees. The present study reports the first complete mitochondrial genome sequence of A. laboriosa, which will enhance our knowledge on Apinae mitogenomes and phylogeny.

In this report, we sequenced and characterized the near complete mitochondrial genome of Apis dorsata collected from Mizoram, India. For sequencing of the complete mitochondrial genome, Illumina NextSeq500 platform was used. The near complete mitochondrial genome was assembled to be 15 076 bplong and contains the same gene order as the other honey bees. The assembly contains 13 protein coding genes, 21 transfer RNA, 2 ribosomal RNA and a partial control (A + T-rich) region estimated to be 75 bp. This is the first near complete sequenced mitochondrial genome from the giant honeybee A. dorsata which will benefit future genomics studies for understanding the phylogenetic relationship within the bee family.

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