Abstract: Heavy metal pollution has become a global environmental problem and severely threatened the biological diversity and people's health. More and more attention has been paid to the potential effects of heavy metal pollution on insects as one of the important groups of global biological diversity. The accumulation of heavy metals in insects may influence their development. It has been demonstrated that insects could be contaminated by respiration, ion absorbing through integument and food intake. Excessive metal accumulation in insects could not only cause cell ultrastructure variations and genetic homeostasis alteration, but also induce cell apoptosis and influence cell viability and proliferation. But, heavy metals can be stored in insect organs with digestive, storage or excretory function in form of “granules”, and be transported into lysosomes to detoxify. Moreover, metallothionein and antioxidant enzymes also play important roles in the process of detoxification.

Key words: Heavy metal, pollution, insects, development, cell, detoxification