Abstract
To delve deeper into the phylogenetic relationships within Cicadellidae and the taxonomic arrangement of Evacanthinae, our study focuses on the mitochondrial genome sequencing of five Nivanini species: Extensus latus, Concavepiana hamulusa, Sophonia nigrilineata, Sophonia microstaina, and Sophonia fuscomarginata. The results showed that the length of the five mitochondrial genomes ranged from 15,610 to 16,032 bp and included 37 typical genes. The A + T content of Nivanini ranged from 72.5% to 78.7%, which is consistent with that of other sequenced Evacanthinae species. All transfer RNAs (tRNAs) exhibit the typical cloverleaf secondary structure, except for trnS (AGY), which lacks the dihydrouracil (DHU) arm. With regard to protein-coding genes, all started with ATN codons, except for atp8, and most of them use TAA or TAG as termination codons. Using the Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods, a phylogenetic tree based on all 37 genes was constructed, with a total of 57 Cicadellidae species and two outgroups included as research objects. The analyses confirmed the monophyletic nature of each subfamily, highlighting Deltocephalinae as the oldest, distinctively parallel to the others.