In this study, the complete mitochondrial genomes of four pierid butterfly species, namely Batltia butleri, Talbotia naganum, Pontia callidice and P. daplidice, were newly sequenced and characterized. Meanwhile the phylogenetic relationships of the main Pieridae lineages covering 22 pierid butterfly species, were reconstructed with Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods based on different mitogenomic datasets, including the concatenated 13 PCGs, 13 PCGs + 2 rRNAs, 2 rRNAs, 2rRNAs + 22 tRNAs and 22 tRNAs sequences, respectively. Our results of mitogenomic analysis showed that the four mitogenomes were 15,124, 15,155, 15,109, 15,124 bp in size, with the gene orders and arangements identical to all other butterflies determined. Our results of phylogenetic analyses upon protein coding genes, rRNA genes or their sequence combinations indicated that the three pierid subfamilies of this study were all monophyletic, with their relationships of being (Dismorphiinae, (Pierinae, Coliadinae)); the phylogenetic relationship of Pierini of this study was (Pieris, (Baltia, (Talbotia, Pontia))) + (Prioneris, (Delias, Aporia)). Additionally, our analyses suggested that only mitogenomic tRNA sequence datasets were not ready to be utilized in resolving the deeper phylogeny, whereas somewhat suitable to be applied in clarifying the phylogenies of closely related species, of the pierid butterflies.

In this study, the complete mitochondrial genomes of four pierid butterfly species, namely Batltia butleri, Talbotia naganum, Pontia callidice and P. daplidice, were newly sequenced and characterized. Meanwhile the phylogenetic relationships of the main Pieridae lineages covering 22 pierid butterfly species, were reconstructed with Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods based on different mitogenomic datasets, including the concatenated 13 PCGs, 13 PCGs + 2 rRNAs, 2 rRNAs, 2rRNAs + 22 tRNAs and 22 tRNAs sequences, respectively. Our results of mitogenomic analysis showed that the four mitogenomes were 15,124, 15,155, 15,109, 15,124 bp in size, with the gene orders and arangements identical to all other butterflies determined. Our results of phylogenetic analyses upon protein coding genes, rRNA genes or their sequence combinations indicated that the three pierid subfamilies of this study were all monophyletic, with their relationships of being (Dismorphiinae, (Pierinae, Coliadinae)); the phylogenetic relationship of Pierini of this study was (Pieris, (Baltia, (Talbotia, Pontia))) + (Prioneris, (Delias, Aporia)). Additionally, our analyses suggested that only mitogenomic tRNA sequence datasets were not ready to be utilized in resolving the deeper phylogeny, whereas somewhat suitable to be applied in clarifying the phylogenies of closely related species, of the pierid butterflies.