Abstract: Approximately 345 base pairs of the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene from 6 species of Chinese grasshoppers (Catantopidae: Acridoidea) and one outgroup Oedaleus manjius were sequenced. Of 345 bp mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene sequences, A%+T% was 71.8%, and 88 nucleotide sites and 31 parsimony informative sites were substituted (about 25.5% and 8.9%, respectively). The molecular phylogenetic trees constructed by parsimony method and neighbor-joining method suggested that genus Oxya and Hieroglyphus were independent evolutionary branches. In the clade Oxya, the relationship between O. Chinensis and O. agavisa was much close, but was far to O. hyla, This result was identical with that of morphology. In the clade Hieroglyphus, H. tonkinensis was closely related to H. annulicornus, but was far to H. banian, and this result was not identical with that of morphology, and needs to be studied further.

Key words: Catantopidae, mtDNA, 12S rRNA gene, phylogeny