Chromosomal-level genome assembly of minute pirate bug Orius nagaii Yasunaga, 1993 (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae)

Species of the genus Orius, diminutive predatory insects that act as natural enemies of other arthropods, are frequently employed in agricultural pest management for controlling various pests, such as thrips, mites, aphids, whiteflies, etc. However, the scarcity of high-quality genomic resources for these predators hinders our comprehension of their population evolution and predation ecology. Consequently, we assembled and annotated a chromosomal-scale genome of Orius nagaii by collating PacBio and Illumina sequencing and Hi-C genomic analysis techniques. The final genome assembly size 152.62 Mb, with scaffold and contig N50 lengths of 11.53 and 2.39 Mb, respectively. It is organized into 12 pairs of autosomes and a pair of XY sex chromosomes. The quality assessment of the genomic data with BUSCO revealed a completeness of 98.5% (n = 1,367). Also, 11,917 protein-coding genes were discovered, with 94.28% of them having functional annotations. The high-quality genome of O. nagaii produced serves as a valuable resource for comprehending the interactions between predatory natural enemies and hosts, along with their evolutionary trajectories.