Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variation of the Oriental Mole Cricket, Gryllotalpa orientalis (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae) in Korea

The mole crickets, Gryllotalpa, are insect pest distributed in the world. In Korea, G. orientalis was reported to occur, but previous ecological studies suggested the presence of two ecological types. To test this hypothesis, we sequenced a portion of mitochondrial (mt) genome from 48 G. orientali individuals collected over five Korean localities: Busan, Suwon, Okchon, Wonju, and Gangneung. From the sequence analysis, only two haplotypes were obtained, but the sequence divergence between the two haplotypes was 11 %, suggesting the presence of two distinct genetic groups in Korea. Although the population of Busan, Okchon, Wonju, and Gangneung was identified as a single haplotype, but that of Suwon was occupied by both hapotypes. Considering sequence divergence of other insect species occurring in Korea, the divergence estimate found between the two haplotypes seems to be too large to be considered as identical species. This result may suggest that the two differentiated haplotypes found in this study may reflect the previously reported two ecological types found in Suwon, Korea. To further understand the genetic divergence of the two phylogenetic groups, analysis of more variable regions of G. orientalis genome is required.