The complete mitochondrial genome of the rocky reef fish Cheilodactylus variegatus valenciennes, 1833 (Teleostei: Cheilodactylidae)

Cheilodactylus variegatus is a common benthivorous marine fish inhabiting in rocky subtidal habitats in the eastern south Pacific coast of Chile and Peru. However, its biology and ecology are relatively understudied and its taxonomic assignment has been debated recently. The complete mitochondrial genome was assembled de novo and mapped to a reference using 5.97 million of reads obtained through Ion Torrent next generation sequencing, resulting in a circular sequence of 16,652 bp in length. Gene composition and arrangement comprised to that reported for most fishes and contained the typical structure of 2 rRNAs, 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNAs and 1 non-coding region. This mitogenome provides a valuable resource for studies of fish molecular systematics, phylogeography and population genetics.