Draft genome of chafer beetle Holotrichia diomphalia

Beetles in the genus <i>Holotrichia</i>, commonly known as the chafer beetles or white grubs, have their larval stage live under the soil feeding on plant roots. These herbivores have now become one of the major agricultural pests worldwide. Despite their importance, no genomic resources are currently available for the beetle genus <i>Holotrichia</i>. Here, we sequenced and assembled the genome of the chafer beetle <i>Holotrichia diomphalia</i> that<i> </i>is distributed in Asia and feeds on the soybean root. The assembled genome size of <i>H. diomphalia </i>is ~1.4 Gb with high continuity (scaffold N50 = 28 kb) and high BUSCO completeness at 92.3 %. A total of 30,873 protein-coding genes were annotated, and the developmental Hox and ParaHox genes, hormonal sesquiterpenoid pathway genes, and microRNAs were analysed. The chafer beetle <i>H. diomphalia </i>genome presented here provides the first available genomic resource for understanding the biology and evolution of this ecologically important group of insects.<br>