Two bivoltine races viz. NB4D2 and CSR2 acclimatized to temperate climates, and one multivoltine race viz., Pure Mysore (PM) acclimatized to tropical climates were exposed to two selected high temperatures of 32℃ and 36℃ during 5th instar larval and pupal stages. The tropical multivoltine PM showed less larval and pupal mortality than temperature tolerant bivoltine NB4D2 and temperature sensitive bivoltine CSR2. Haemolymph trehalose levels were relatively higher, and glucose level and trehalase activity lower during moult. At 32℃ and 36℃, haemolymph sugar level and trehalase activity showed only a marginal increase during larval moult. Moulted larvae showed a significant drop in haemolymph trehalose level and increase in trehalase activity and glucose levels. Also, the moulted larvae showed a further decrease in trehalose levels and increase in glucose level and trehalase activity when exposed to higher temperature. Feeding larvae showed a significant drop in glucose level and increase in trehalose level in haemolymph at 25±1℃. At 32℃ and 36℃, haemolymph glucose and trehalose levels and trehalase activity increased in feeding larvae in PM and NB4D2 but decreased in CSR2. Spinning larvae showed a significant decrease in haemolymph glucose level and trehalase activity and marginal decrease in trehalose level. At higher temperatures, an increase in blood sugar level and trehalase activity was observed in spinning larvae in temperature tolerant PM and NB4D2 and decrease in temperature sensitive CSR2. Haemolymph sugar level and trehalase activity increased during pupal development in all the three races. At the two higher temperatures, the haemolymph sugar  level and trehalase activity increased in PM. But, in NB4D2 the   increases in haemolymph sugar level and trehalase activity in pupae at 36℃ were less than those at 32℃. In CSR2, an increase in haemolymph glucose level was observed at 32℃ but haemolymph glucose decreased to the level lower than the control when the ambient temperature of the pupae was raised to 36℃. But, haemolymph trehalose level and activity decreased when the pupae of CSR2 were held at higher temperatures, the decrease being more at 36℃ than at 32℃. Acclimation to high temperature in the mulberry silkworm, Bombyx mori thus depended upon the race and developmental stage in the life cycle and was manifested by the changes in haemolymph sugar level and trehalase activity.

The aim was to study the species diversity, community structure, similarity, distribution and niche of gamasid mites on the body surface of 3 303 small mammals in the surrounding areas of Erhai Lake in Dali, Yunnan by using Shannon-Wiener, hierarchical cluster analysis (SPSS 13.0) and Levins'niche. The investigated site was an important focus of epidemic hemorrhagic fever, where stands alongside three cordilleras surrounding Erhai Lake, namely Eastern Wuliang Mountain, Southern Ailao Mountain and Western Cangshan Mountain. The three confined oriented areas formed different landscapes within the same zone for inartificial barrier's isolation of Erhai Lake. The small mammal hosts were captured from three differently oriented areas belong to 7 families, 15 genera and 21 species in 4 orders (Rodentia, Insectivora, Scandentia and Carnivora), while 23 196 individuals of gamasid mites collected from the body surface of the small mammal hosts are identified into 6 families, 16 genera and 43 species. The results reveal that the community structure of gamasid mites is complex with high species diversity. The distribution of gamasid mites and their corresponding hosts are quite uneven in differently orientations, but dominant species beside gamasid mites on the same dominant small mammal host in differently oriented areas beside Erhai Lake are homologous. The results indicate that habitat influences the species composition and distribution of gamasid mites and their corresponding hosts. Gamasid mite communities on their corresponding hosts are similar if the taxonomic position and habitats of the hosts (small mammals) are similar. The abundance and diversity of gamasid mites on small mammals across different sites are determined mainly by host identity and by the habitats where the hosts live. This might be an ecological evidence of co-evolution between small mammals and gamasid mites. But by using the niche breadth of gamasid mites, host-specificity of gamasid mites are low, this may imply that the co-evolution between small mammals and gamasid mites exist, but the degree is not high.

The homologus sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b (Cytb) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) genes were sequenced in 17 species representing five subfamilies (belonging to family Acrididae): Melanoplinae, Catantopinae, Cyrtacanthacridinae, Oedipodinae and Gomphocerinae from China. The concatenated sequence from both genes was 1 998 bp in length, consisting of 1 266 bp and 732 bp for COI and Cytb respectively. In the concatenated sequence, A+T content was about 72.13%, and C+G only 27.87%. There are 889 sites conserved, 1 109 sites were variable, and 838 sites were parsimony informative in the variable sites. Phylogenetic trees were reconstructed with maximum parsimony, neighbor-joining, and maximum likelihood using Erianthus versicolor and Erianthus sp. of the Eumastacoidea as outgroups. Our results showed that the monophyly of the subfamilies Gomphocerinae and Catantopinae were not supported here. The phylogenetic trees did not entirely agree with the international taxonomic system of grasshoppers. The subfamily Oedipodinae clustered as one clade, which was supported as a monophyletic group. Based on the close relationships among four subfamilies, Gomphocerinae, Catantopinae, Cyrtacanthacridinae and Melanoplinae, we suggest that the four subfamilies should be considered to merge into one subfamily. Simultaneously, we found it was not very dependable to infer the phylogenetic relationships among subfamilies within the Acrididae based on the concatenated sequence from Cytb and COI genes.

Life tables of the laboratory population of Lygus lucorum Meyer Dür at five different temperatures (17, 20, 23, 26 and 29℃) were constructed．The results showed that the developmental rate of L. lucorum increased with the increment of temperature at 17-32℃, and the relationship between them could be simulated by the Logistic model. The developmental durations of nymph, preoviposition, egg and generation were 10.04-27.63, 8.33-19.33, 6.74-15.00 and 25.11-61.96 days at the experimental temperatures, respectively. The threshold temperatures of nymph, preoviposition and egg were 9.45, 7.28 and 6.28℃ with effective accumulated temperatures of 210.25, 191.83 and 160.12 day-degree, respectively. The effective accumulated temperature of the whole generation was 555.04 day-degree. The generation survival rate, preoviposition time, number of nymph produced by one female and population trend index all reached the highest at 23℃, being 82.30%, 41.67 days, 35.42 and 14.58, respectively. Population trend index at 17℃ and 29℃ were 8.44 and 9.06 respectively, which were not suitable for the incre ment of L. lucorum population.

Host-seeking behaviors of Aedes albopictus after treatments with spatial repellents at a certain concentration for given time were studied. The results indicated that mosquitoes after treatments with citral, eugenol, linalool, geraniol, anisaldehyde at concentrations of 0.013-0.500 μg/cm³ for 24-96 h, respectively,  all showed different degrees of reduction in host seeking ability, of which geraniol and anisaldehyde were more effective. But citronellal was ineffective in reducing the host seeking ability of Aedes albopictus in all the test levels. Mosquitoes which had lost the host seeking ability after above treatments with geraniol, citral, eugenol, linalool and anisaldehyde were able to recover to the normal ability when fed the normal 6% syrup diet for some time, but the mosquitoes after a treatment with 0.250 μg/cm³ of anisaldehyde for 96 h showed a long continually inhibitory response for host seeking ability. These initial laboratory results clearly showed that anisealdehyde and geraniol could be promising spatial repellents against Ae. albopictus and may play a major role in the new repellent technology.