Complete mitochondrial genome of the corn leafhopper Dalbulus maidis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae)

The corn leafhopper, Dalbulus maidis, is the most important pest of maize (Zea mays) in the Neotropics, due to its efficiency in pathogen transmission and close evolutionary association with the crop. This host specialization has enabled D. maidis to spread with maize, from their center of origin in Mesoamerica to all tropical and subtropical America, including Brazil. The population dynamics and survival strategies of D. maidis could be better understood by studying the species’ genetics, which has been little explored thus far. To fill in this knowledge gap, we provide here the complete mitochondrial DNA genome (mitogenome) of D. maidis (GenBank accession number: ON756137). Six adult specimens collected in Southern Brazil (Novo Machado/RS and Salvador das Miss?es/RS) were used for DNA extraction and sequencing on an Illumina MiSeq, followed by mitogenome assembling using NOVOPlasty v4.3.1, and annotation using MITOS v2.0.8. We confirmed the species identity by molecular diagnostics that showed >98% similarity between our reported partial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (mtCOI) gene and other D. maidis mtCOI sequences reported to date.