Pararge aegeria is a palearctic butterfly used as a model organism in ecology, behavior, evolution and development, with significant geographically-correlated morphological variation and two close relatives in Macaronesia. In this study, I have determined the complete mitogenome sequence of P. aegeria. The genome is 15,240 bp long, and has the typical gene organization of other lepidopteran mitogenomes. Salient features include the IMQ order of tRNA genes, a sizable (52 bp) spacer between trnQ and nad2, a CGA start codon in cox1 and the ATAGA(T)19 motif in the control region. Interestingly, this region also contains four copies of the imperfect palindrome TAAATATWTATAWATATTTA.
Keywords: Lepidoptera; Pararge aegeria; mitochondrial genome; model organism.