baiqiu Wang

and 2 more

Cricket Velarifictorus micado is widely distributed in East Asia and colonized North America since 1959. It has been reported that they had two modes of life cycle and distributed in southern and northern Asia respectively. Aimed to investigate the biogeographic boundary between the two groups and the causes of differentiation, mitochondrial fragments including COI and CytB were used for phylogenetic analysis, time estimation and demographic analysis. The results showed that, (i) Haplotype network indicated that V. micado has diversified to three lineages based on COI. Individuals with egg diapause lived in northern Asia, whereas those with egg and nymph diapause lived in southern Asia, and the populations colonized North America belongs to the egg diapause group from both North and South Asia. (ii) The molecular chronograms indicated that the first diversification between individuals in the northern and southern Asia occurred during ~0.79 Ma BP in the Middle Pleistocene Transition. The second event occurred in southern individuals during ~0.49 Ma BP, when the glaciers developed in Yulong mountain (Yunnan province). (iii) V. micado has diversified to two main clades based on CytB. The individuals distributed in southern China have not been differentiated. Haplotype network indicated that the egg diapause lived in southern China most possibly originated from Yunnan, where lies at the foot of the Tibetan plateau. Our study suggested that the twice divergence of V. micado co-occurred with tendency of cooling climatic in Asia after the Mid-Pleistocene.