Sex pheromone production in lepidopteran insects is regulated by the pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide (PBAN), which is produced in suboesophageal ganglion. We first reported the molecular characterization of a gene encoding the Heliothis assulta PBAN (Has PBAN) by polymerase chain reaction. A 630 bp fragment containning the entire Has PBAN gene was isolated and characterized. Has PBAN gene comprised two exons interspersed by a single intron, and the consensus sequence for splicing junction is identified at the exon/intron boundary. The result showed that PBAN gene is localized in the genome of H.assulta. Further, the gene expression analysis suggests that the PBAN mRNA is present in suboesophageal ganglion.

Significant decrease in pheromone titer of female H. assulta occurred 1 h following mating, and the pheromone titer remained low until 72 h after mating. The results of pheromonostatic bioassay showed that the pheromonostatic factors existed mainly in the male accessory gland. There was no significant difference in pheromonostatic activity among extracts prepared from accessory glands of various dayage males. However the pheromonostatic activity of male accessory gland extract was affected by the phase of photoperiod, as the accessory gland extracts from the males in scotophase showed a high activity, while from those in photophase had no activity. The pheromone titers of females injected with accessory gland extracts from males at various hours in scotophase had no significant difference. There was a dose response relationship of pheromonostatic activity of male accessory gland extract, and 0.2ME (male equivalent) was the minimum dose required for effective inhibition. After injection of PBAN (Pheromone Biosynthesis Activating Nuropeptide) extract, the sex pheromone production in mated females was restored. This result suggests that the decrease of pheromone titer of mated female is due to the lack of PBAN in the sex pheromone glands.

In this paper, we investigated five Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) strains from four major manufacturers of Bt products in China for the endotoxin components by PCR and SDS-PAGE. All five strains harbour cry 1Aa and/or c, and/or d, and/or e genes, only the Bt+Virus strain has cry1Ab gene. The cry1A class of genes encodes for insecticidal crystal proteins with MW of 130 kD and toxic to Lepidoptera. The JS-Bt C strain contains the cry1B gene, which encodes for a 138 kD crystal protein, potentially toxic to both Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Four of the five strains (HB-Bt P, Bt+Virus, JS-Bt P, and JS-Bt C) harbour the cry2Aa and/or b genes, which encode 70 kD crystal proteins toxic to Lepidoptera. All of the five strains have the cry1I gene which appears to be cryptic in all the strains. None of the five strains harbours the cry1C and cry1D genes.

The phosphorylation of synaptosomal protein from adult brains of three resistant strains and a susceptible strain of diamond back moth,Plutella xylostella had been studied. The result showed that the level of protein phosphorylation differed between resistant and susceptible strains. Calmodulin could promoted the protein phosphorylation differently in strains studied, so was cAMP. But the susceptible strain expressed higher sensitivity. Both dimehypo and cartap inhibited the protein phosphorylation more in the susceptible strain than in dimehypo resistant and cartap resistant strains. Deltamethrin, however, activated the protein phosphorylation stronger in the susceptible strain than in deltamethrin resistant strain. The study reveals that insecticide resistance of diamond back moth might result in changes of protein phosphorylation in nervous system, leading modification of nervous regulation.

Treatment in vivo with PBO caused apparent reduction of the cytochrome P450 level in third instar larva of Helicoverpa armigera. At 1 hour after PBO treatment, the content of cytochrome P450 was only 43.9% of that in the control. At 12 hours after PBO treatment, the content of cytochrome P450 decreased to 23.4% of the control. While 18 and 24 hours after treatment, the content of cytochrome P450 was 85.8% and 70.0% of the control respectively. The bioassay results indicated that PBO synergised 7 pyrethroids significantly, with the highest synergistic ratio (119.3) for fenvalerate and the lowest (2.1) for permethrin. Because the cytochrome P450 is an important detoxifying enzyme, the reduction of the cytochrome P450 level can impede the oxidative metabolism and cause obvious synergism to pyrethroids in H.armigera.

Influence of individual migration on the evolution of resistance of pest population to insecticides has been studied based on population genetics by modeling. The simulated results indicate that there is a threshold of migration ratio in the migration of different genotypes influencing the resistance evolution of pest population. If the genotypes of immigration individuals are all susceptible(SS), when the immigration ratio is below the threshold, there is no retarding effect on the evolution of resistance of the pest population, and when the immigration ratio is above the threshold, the delaying effect increases gradually as the immigration increases. The resistance evolution of pest population is entirely prevented when the immigration ratio increases to a certain value. If the genotypes of immigration individuals are all resistant (R gene), and the immigration ratio is below the threshold, then it will accelerate the resistance evolution of pest population. But when the immigration ratio is above the threshold , it will slow down or stop the resistance evolution of the pest population. The emigration of individuals from the insecticidetreated area can enhance the effect of immigration of SS individuals on the resistance evolution and reduce the effect of immigration of the individuals with R gene (including RS and RR individuals) on the resistance evolution. The results from modeling and that from bioassay with Plutella xylostella appear to have a better consistency. It suggests that the resistance simulation modeling might be useful for predicting and analyzing the evolution of resistance of pest population to insecticides.

Adult feeding of the stink bug, Tessaratoma papillosa Drury occurred on flowering, tender and tough branches of the hostplant, litchi. However, their feeding behavior in their preoverwintering and reproductive stages was obviously different. 50%～70% and 100% of adults fed on all the three kinds of branches in their preoverwintering and reproductive stages, respectively. Placed on these branches, the prefeeding period of the stink bugs at preoverwintering stage was longer than that at reproductive stage. The feeding behavior of the stink bugs on different kinds of branches differed greatly. The prefeeding period of the stink bugs on flowering or tender branches was much shorter than that on tough one. The stink bugs preferred feeding flowering and tender branches in the choice test. The contents of water, nitrogen and soluble sugars in flowering and tender branches were higher than that in tough one and the content of soluble sugars in all three types of branches varied during the reproductive stage of the stink bug. Tender and flowering branches differed from tough one in morphology and histology.

Oomyzus sokolowskii (Kurdjumov), a major parasitoid of the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella L., is a larvalpupal parasitoid that prefers ovipositing into host larvae of all instars but depositing its eggs in host prepupae too. The parasitoid can also deposit eggs into grown larvae of Cotesia plutellae (Kurdjumov) that have been parasitizing the larvae of diamondback moth. Thus, O. sokolowskii is a facultative hyperparasitoid of the diamondback moth In Hangzhou, the parasitoid is active in the field from April to October, and enters into a quiescent state as matured larvae or prepupae inside the hosts in midto late October to overwinter until next April. Laboratory experiments showed that the favourable temperature for development, survival, and reproduction of the parasitoid ranged from 20 to 30℃, and temperatures below 20℃ or above 30℃ were unfavourable for its survival. However, the wasps that developed and emerged at favourable temperatures could effectively parasitize the host at 32～35℃ in a short period of time. At 20℃, 25℃ and 30℃, a female wasp on average parasitized 3.1, 13.2 and 6.8 larvae of the diamondback moth, and produced 20.5, 92.1 and 50.4 offsprings, respectively. The intrinsic rates of increase (r_m) of the parasitoid at 20℃, 25℃ and 30℃ were estimated to be 0.082, 0.240 and 0.263 female/female/day, respectively.

Effects of foods on growth, development and reproduction of the cotton bollworm,Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner), were investigated by simulating larval feeding habits, using cotton, peanut, corn and artificial diet as larval foods, and either providing supplementary food or not for female moths. Differences among larval durations were significant, while no significant difference in pupal duration were detected. The larvae reared on peanut produced significantly smaller pupae than those on the other 3 foods. Abdomen dry weight and fat content of the female moths from larvae on the 4 foods had the same order as female pupal weight did, with abdomens of the female moths from the caterpillars on artificial diet being significantly heavier than those from cotton and peanut groups. When fed with 10% honey solution, longevity, mating rate, and fecundity were not significantly different among the female moths from the 4 larval foods. However, when fed with water only, all the female moths from larvae fed on peanut failed to mate, lived significantly shorter and deposited significantly fewer eggs than the other 3 groups of females that showed no significant difference in these parameters. With respect to adult food treatments, supplementary nutrition of 10% honey solution contributed a little to performance of the females from the larvae fed on artificial diet, whereas it significantly increased longevity and fecundity of those females from the other 3 larval foods .These results suggest that peanut must be less suitable for development and reproduction of the cotton bollworm as compared with cotton and corn. In the field, sugar content in larval food plants seems to be a significant factor influencing development and reproduction of this insect species, and N variation in host plants may be less important for them.

Based on the two migration events of Nilaparvata lugens(Stal) population, which had led to its serious infestation on rice in Changjiang valley, the main ricegrowing regions in midsummer of 1991，and introduced into certain physiological and ecological parameters controlling the migration， a dynamical and numerical prediction model with higher spatiotemporal detectablity——MM4 and a means of calculating for 3-D trajectory were used to model the dynamic state of their migrating northward . The simulations and the comparisons between the simulations and the practical pests investigation showed: (1) The emigrating resource was an area from 22.5°N to 27°N on latitude and from 110°E to 116°E on longitude. (2) There were three spatial migratory paths, which consisted of a main path with an azimuth of about 32° and two assistant paths of about 10° and 75° respectively on azimuth.(3)There were three immigrating and descending regions with a main region situated in the middle and lower reaches of Changjiang valley, an assistant region joined northwestern Hubei with northeastern Sichuan and another assistant region enclosed southeastern Zhejiang and northern Fujian.(4)The conformity between the simulations and the practical pests investigation just illustrated that this model is an important means for the exploration of migratory pests' catastrophic mechanism.

The present paper deals with two new species of the genus Atractomorpha Saussure and the genus Oedaleus Fieber,A.nigripennis sp.nov. and O.cnecosopodius sp. Nov.. The type specimens are deposited in the Institute of Zoology,Shaanxi Normal University.

The present paper reports seven species of the Coleophora absinthii group from China. Among them, one species, Coleophora fengxianica sp. Nov. is described as new to science and four species (Coleophora absinthii Heinemann et Wocke, Coleophora amarchana Falkovitsh, Coleophora artemisicolella Bruand and Coleophora kudrosella Baldizzone ) are recorded for the first time from this country.

Two species,belong to Microplitis Foerster,of the family Braconidae are dealt with in this paper.Among them one species，Microplitis helicoverpae,is described as new to science;the other species,Microplitis albotibialis Telenga,is first recorded in China.

A new species of the genus Entomognathus Dahlbom (Sphecidae:Crabroninae:Crabronini), Entomognathus (Koxinga) yunnanensis sp. Nov., is described from Yunnan Province, China. The type specimen is deposited in the Insect Collections of Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica.

Among the specimens collected from mountainous region in Sichuan Province during 1980～1996 years,there have been found three new species of Muscidae belonging to the genus Phaonia Robineaudesvoidy,1830,I.e. Phaonia holcocerca Feng et Ma,sp.nov.,Phaonia supernapica Feng et Ma,sp.nov. and Phaonia mengi Feng,sp.nov. The type specimens are kept in the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology,Beijing,China.

This is a review about the action mechanism of Bacillus thuringiensis and insecticidal crystal protein.Some current models explaining the action mechanism based on different levels were described.

Many insects left “oviposition markers” on the surface of the eggs or at the egglaying site after oviposition. It was found that “oviposition markers” were chemicaloviposition deterrents (OVD) produced by female adults,which deterred oviposition at the same sites by conspecific or heterospecific females. It was confirmed that the larvae of many insects could secret OVD. The species in Orthoptera,Lepidoptera,Coleoptera and Diptera could also produce OVD. Many documents confirmed that there were chemicals functioning as OVD in many kinds of plants. A set of techniques for studying OVD such as electrophysiological responses,behavioral responses,and isolation and identification of active compounds has now been developed. The OVD produced by females of Pieris rape,Lasioderma serricorne and Rhagoletis cerasi were identified and synthesized. The chemicals functioning as OVD of Pieris rape and Hylemya spp. Were found in many plants. Controlling Rhagoleris cerasi with OVD was a typical example in the application of OVD. In addition,a new variety of cotton that could deter oviposition by females of Anthonomus grandis was also developed. OVD could also be used to study coevolutionary relationship between herbivore insects and plants. We think that study on OVD of insects plays a very important role in decoding the ovipositional behaviors of insects,coevoluationary relationship between herbiore insects and plants,and developing new types of pest insectcontrolling techniques.