Interspecific diversity of mitochondrial COI sequences in Japanese Panonychus species (Acari : Tetranychidae)

Sequences of a part of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene were analyzed in four Japanese Panonychus species to determine their phylogenetic relationships. Neighbor-Joining and maximum likelihood analysi s resulted in a high bootstrap support of the relationships within the genu s Panonychus. In contrast with a previous study based on ribosomal DNA data , the COI phylogeny suggested that P. mori was more distantly related to P. citri than to P. ulmi. This study shows for the first time that P. osmanth i is closely related to P. citri. Intraspecific variation analysis shows th at the genetic distance between two local populations of P. mori is higher than between P. citri and P. osmanthi.