Diaphanes is the fourth largest genus in Lampyridae, but no luciferase gene from this genus has been reported. In this paper, by PCR amplification of the genomic DNA, the luciferase gene of
Diaphanes pectinealis
, which is the first case from
Diaphanes, was identified and sequenced. The luciferase gene from
D. pectinealis spans 1958 base pairs (bp) from the start to the stop codon, including seven exons separated by six introns, and encoding a 547-residuelong polypeptide. Its deduced amino acid sequence showed high protein similarity to those of the Lampyrini tribe (93-94%) and the Cratomorphini tribe (92%), while low similarity was found with the North American firefly
Photinus pyralis
(83%) of the Photinini tribe within the same subfamily Lampyrinae. The phylogenetic analysis performed with the deduced amino acid sequences of the luciferase gene further confirms that
D. pectinealis, Pyrocoelia, Lampyris, Cratomorphus, and
Photinus belong to the same subfamily Lampyrinae, and
Diaphanes is closely related to
Pyrocoelia, Lampyris, and
Cratomorphus. Furthemore, the phylogenetic analysis based on the nucleotide sequences of the luciferase gene indicates
Diaphanes is a sister to
Lampyris. The phylogenetic analyses are partly consistent with morphological (Branham & Wenzel, 2003) and mitochondrial DNA analyses (Li et al, 2006).