Abstract: Life tables are the prime tool in population ecology and pest management. Because traditional female age-specific life tables are not capable of describing the stage differentiation and ignore males entirely, the age-stage, two-sex life table is being widely used by many scientists. In this article, we first overviewed the basic principles of the age-stage, two-sex life table, including the stage differentiation of insect populations, the effect of sex ratio on population growth, the difference between the total preoviposition period and adult preoviposition period, and the difference between the oviposition period and oviposition days. We then explained the advantages of life table analyses based on the bootstrap technique. Finally, we introduced the major applications of the computer programs (TWOSEX-MSChart, CONSUME-MSChart, and TIMING-MSChart), i.e., population projection and timing of pest management, correct analyses of the predation rate of predators and the consumption rate of pests, prediction of the population growth of predators and their predation potential, and guidance of mass-rearing and harvesting of natural enemies. As a powerful tool for data analysis, insect life tables have been extensively used in population ecology and pest managements. Looking forward to the future, we expect that they will be widely adopted in studies involving insect physiology, pesticide resistance, sublethal effect of pesticides, symbionts, etc.

Key words:  Life table, survival rate, fecundity, population dynamics, pest management