【Aim】 Ubiquitin regulatory X (UBX) domain-containing proteins function as cofactors of p97/CDC48 which is involved in multiple ubiquitin-related processes including protein degradation through the ubiquitin-proteasome system and homotypic membrane fusion. Our study aims to clone the UBX domain-containing protein gene from Locusta migratoria manilensis, and to analyze its expression patterns in different tissues and at different developmental stages, so as to provide the foundation for further function research. 【Methods】 A transcriptome database for L. migratoria manilensis was mined through bioinformatic analysis. Gene expression levels were analyzed in different tissues of L. migratoria manilensis adults and at different developmental stages using real-time PCR. 【Results】 A UBX domain-containing protein gene was identified, and named LmUBX2. The open reading frame (ORF) encodes a protein of 339 amino acids with a predicted molecular weight of 37.8 kDa and a theoretical pI of 6.03. BLAST analysis showed that it shares 37%-64% amino acid sequence identities to other UBX domain-containing proteins. LmUBX2 possesses a conserved N-terminal UBA domain and a C-terminal UBX domain. Sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis revealed that LmUBX2 is a member of the SAKS1 subfamily. Gene expression analysis results showed that LmUBX2 was expressed during the whole life cycle, and highly expressed in ovary and testis. 【Conclusion】 These findings suggest that LmUBX2  might be involved in multiple physiological processes of L. migratoria manilensis. Especially, LmUBX2 might be related to the reproduction of L. migratoria manilensis, although further research needs to be performed to confirm this correlation.

【Aim】 Mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade is one of the important signal transduction pathways in cells. Ras GTPase-activating protein (RasGAP) gene RasGAP and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) gene JNK are an up-stream gene and a down-stream gene in MAPK pathway, respectively. This study aims to determine the expression profiles of  RasGAP and  JNK  in the desert beetle Microdera punctipennis in response to low temperature. 【Methods】 A full length cDNA of RasGAP from M. punctipennis was cloned. The deduced amino acid sequence was analyzed, and the phylogynetic tree was constructed. The expression profiles of RasGAP and JNK in M. punctipennis exposed to low temperatures were detected by using real-time quantitative PCR. 【Results】 The ORF of RasGAP cDNA from M. punctipennis is 2 523 bp in length, and was named as MpRasGAP(GenBank accession no.: KM677930), encoding a polypeptide of 840 amino acids with the molecular weight of 96.594 kDa. The encoded protein MpRasGAP belongs to the RasGAP super family. Homology analysis showed that MpRasGAP shares 89% amino acid sequence identity with RasGAP from Tribolium castaneum. When M. punctipennis adults were exposed to 4℃ and -4℃ for 1 h, the mRNA levels of MpRasGAP were significantly upregulated as compared with that at room temperature (25℃). When M. punctipennis adults were exposed to 4℃ for 3 h or -4℃ for 1 h, the mRNA levels of MpJNK were also elevated significantly. 【Conclusion】 The results of this study demonstrate that the expression of both  MpRasGAP and MpJNK in M. punctipennis can be induced by low temperature. Our results will help to further study the role of MAPK pathway in the desert insect under low temperature.

【Aim】 This study aims to find the time of establishment and maintenance of dominant reproductive status and the variations of relevant cuticular long-chained hydrocarbons (CHCs) in neotenic reproductives of Reticulitermes labralis. 【Methods】 Orphaned colonies of R. labralis were established in the laboratory. The time of establishment and maintenance of stable reproductive status for neotenic reproductives was determined via the differentiation observation. The variations of relevant CHCs in different developmental stages of neotenic reproductives were analyzed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS). 【Results】 With the appearance of neotenic reproductives of R. labralis, each colony gradually had its dominant reproductives (stable reproductives). Colonies with stable reproductives accounted for 43.3%, 83.3%, 93.3% and 100% of the orphaned groups on the 8th, 16th, 25th and 36th day, respectively. By analyzing the peak area ratios (the peak area at each stage divided by the area of the corresponding peak at the nymphal stage) in different stages of neotenic reproductives, we found that the peak area ratio of the compound with the retention time of 38.52 min, which was not detected in eggs, was 14.14 times in reproductives laying 7-8 eggs as high as that in the nymphal stage, while the compounds with the retention time of 35.50 and 39.21 min, which were detected in eggs, had significantly increased peak area ratios after the reproductives began to lay eggs. 【Conclusion】 CHCs can not be used to discriminate fertile neotenics (neotenic reproductives that establish and maintain dominant reproductive status) from infertile neotenic reproductives (individuals with morph of neotenics, but unable to lay eggs in the colony) of R. labralis, although they can be used to discriminate neotenic reproductives from nymphs easily. The compound with the retention time of 38.52 min is a characteristic substance of reproductives. The compounds with the retention time of 35.50 and 39.21 min are characteristic substances of neotenic reproductives that have laid eggs.

【Aim】 The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, one of the worst invasive species in the world, has been found to occur in South China in 2004 and caused serious destruction to agricultural and forestry industry as well as to ecosystem in the infested region. The elaborate survey and analysis on food composition transported by fire ant foragers in the field would not only let us accurately assess the potential impact of fire ant forager predation on arthropod communities, but also provide us a scientific basis for improving baiting efficacy for fire ant control. 【Methods】 Foraging solid materials including arthropod pieces and plant seeds were collected by exposing foraging trails and capturing each foraging ant transporting a particle toward to the mound in two habitats, mulberry orchard and barren land, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, South China. Meanwhile, the size of the foragers transporting those items was measured for the analysis of forager polymorphism. Each solid particle was identified and measured individually by the combination of length and width and weighed, and the components and content of liquid stored in crops of foragers collected on exposed foraging trails were analyzed using Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) and amino acid analysis. 【Results】 The results showed that solid particles that fire ant foragers transported for consumption mainly consisted of animal particles and plant seeds, and the former originated from 21 groups (including 14 orders of insects) of 7 classes of 3 phyla of animals. Solid foraging materials from Class Insecta accounted for 45.53% and 46.10% of the solid foraging materials in both habitats of mulberry orchard and barren land. During foraging, 80% foragers, which were medium-sized workers, preferred taking solid particles as large as 1.400±0.043 mm -2.306±0.063 mm in length and 0.723±0.028 mm-1.261±0.051 mm in width, being 0.203-0.413 mg in weight. The liquid foods from the foragers’ crops were composed of fructose, glucose, and amino acids. There were 33 and 32 kinds of amino acids with the total contents of 1 544.31 mg/L and 861.48 mg/L in crop liquid from foragers in mulberry orchard and barren land, respectively, of which 31 kinds of amino acids were shared by foragers in both habitats. 【Conclusion】 In South China, fire ant foragers prey insect pieces as major food sources. Most foragers involving in transporting solid particles back to nests are medium-sized workers. We assumed that foragers in mulberry orchard and barren land prefer liquid food rich in amino acids and monohydrates.

【Aim】 It has been documented that intercropping with tomato,  Lycopersicon esculentum , can suppress populations of the dominant insect pests in cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) fields. The present study aims to find the optimal ratio of tomato intercropped for protection of natural enemies and suppression of insect pests in cauliflower-based fields. 【Methods】 The study was conducted in a provincial standard demonstration site located in Minqing County of central Fujian (26°10′41″N, 118°48′10″E). The experiment was designed with scaled-up intercropping ratios of 0%, 10%, 30% and 50% of tomato plants to the total plants in cauliflower-based fields, using a randomized-block arrangement. The species of arthropods and their numbers of individuals in the cauliflower fields were visually observed and recorded. 【Results】 The results showed that the number of individuals of  Lipaphis erysimi was significantly suppressed in the cauliflower-based intercropping fields and the inhibitory efficacy increased with increasing of the intercropping ratio of tomato (50%＞30%＞10%). The number of individuals of  Phyllotreta striolata  decreased significantly in the intercropping fields with 30% and 50% tomato plants as compared to that in the monoculture system of cauliflower, but with no significant difference between the intercropping systems with 30% tomato plants and with 50% tomato plants. Intercropping with tomato had no effects on the numbers of individuals of Pieris rapae  and spiders in the cauliflower-based fields. The number of individuals of  Cotesia plutellae and the ratio of  C. plutellae  wasps to  Plutella xylostella moths increased in the intercropping fields compared to those in the monoculture system of cauliflower, but with no significant differences among the three intercropping ratios. 【Conclusion】 The 30% intercropping ratio of tomato plants is most optimal for the control of insect pests in cauliflower-based fields.

【Aim】 This study aims to explore and recover the tribal phylogenetic relationship within the subfamily Hesperiinae in China. 【Methods】 The partial mitochondrial Cytb and ND1 gene sequences of a total of 32 species in 22 genera were determined and analyzed, and the phylogenetic trees of the Hesperiinae species were constructed using the Bayesian and maximum likelihood methods. 【Results】 There are 450 conservative sites, 386 variable sites and 304 parsimony-informative sites, and a 76.9% A+T bias in the 836 bp nucleotides of the combined sequence of the two mitochondrial genes. Phylogenetic trees based on the combined sequence of Cytb and ND1 genes showed that the Ancistroidini, Baorini and Hesperiini are monophyletic with the relationship of (Hesperiini+(Baorini+Ancistroidini)), while the tribe Aeromachini (=Halpini) is a paraphyletic group. 【Conclusion】 Our results support the tribal nomenclatures of the Ancistroidini, Baorini and Hesperiini. However, the polyphyly of Aeromachini in this study contradicts with the former results by Warren et al. In addition, the phylogenetic relationship of other tribes needs further confirmation by more taxa sampling.

【Aim】 The quantitative morphological differences of Protaetia (Liocola) brevitarsis from different geographical populations in China and the adjacent regions were compared. The morphological differences among the populations from Xinjiang and the adjacent regions were specially studied. The results can provide guidance for plant protection and production activities. Furthermore, this study will shed new light on microevolution theory. 【Methods】 The morphology of the pronotum and elytra of P. (L.) brevitarsis was studied based on 700 individuals from 30 regions of China using geometric morphometrics approaches. The geographical variations on morphology were analyzed based on principal component analysis (PCA) and canonical variate analysis (CVA). 【Results】 The specimens of  P. (L.) brevitarsis  from Xinjiang obviously clustered together in the PCA results of pronotum and elytra. There were some morphological overlapping between the specimens from Xinjiang and those from the adjacent areas, while there were little morphological overlapping between the specimens from Xinjiang and those from the areas far from Xinjiang. Additionally, the specimens from Xinjiang and those from south China were obviously separated in morphology. The significance testing for the morphological differences among the populations from different regions based on the Mahalanobis distance and Procrustes distance proved that there were significant differences between the specimens from Xinjiang and those from the areas far from Xinjiang in morphology. At the same time, there were no significant differences between the specimens from Xinjiang and those from other areas in Mahalanobis distance and Procrustes distance. 【Conclusion】 This study proved that the white spot on the pronotum and elytra can be a sound evaluation criteria for geographical variations of  P. (L.) brevitarsis . The geographical distance is related to the morphological distance in a certain degree. We assumed that  P. (L.) brevitarsis  possibly invaded Xinjiang from Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Gansu outside the north border of Qinghai, and the source of P. brevitarsis  invading Xinjiang is the same with that invading these three provinces. This study demonstrated a research model which may have a broad prospect to enrich the microevolution theory and molecular ecology research.

【Aim】 This study aims to explore the method to realize the automatic insect image recognition based on computer vision technology. 【Methods】 The captured insect image was first preprocessed to remove the background, and were segmented into two pairs of wings, and the position of the wings was calibrated. Then the calibrated wings were divided into several regions along radial and angular directions. WLD (Weber Local Descriptor) and HoC (Histogram of Color) features were extracted and normalized in each region. The WLD features are extracted on grayscale image, reflecting the local texture feature of wing images. HoC features were extracted on HSI (Hue, Saturation, Intensity) color space, reflecting the color distribution information of the region. The WLD features and HoC features from all the regions of two pairs of wings were concatenated into a feature vector of the insect image. The feature vectors extracted from the insect image samples in training set were used to train the SVMs (Support Vector Machines) which were finally used to classify lepidopteran insects. 【Results】 The proposed method was tested in a database with 576 images and the standalone prediction accuracy was as high as 100%, and the system also demonstrated ideal time performance, good robustness and high stability. 【Conclusion】 The experimental results prove that the combination of WLD and HoC is an effective method for insect image feature description.

In this article the up-to-date progress of the ecophysiological effects of heavy metals on insects was reviewed, and the pitfalls concerning the ecophysiological studies of heavy metals on insects were also discussed. Short-term exposure to heavy metals may cause acute toxicity to insects, while chronic exposure probably results in adaptive evolution of insects to these inorganic materials. The toxicity of heavy metals is dependent on concentration, time of exposure and feeding patterns. The toxicity of heavy metals could also be transferred through prey-predator interaction. The physiological toxicity of heavy metals to insects includes decreased amount of energy materials in haemolymph and/or haemocytes, imbalance of redox state, suppression of cellular and/or humoral immunocompetence, and dis-integrity of insect cells and/or tissues. However, insects have developed physiological and ecological strategies to cope with the toxicity of heavy metals, e.g.,storage of heavy metals in specific tissues or organs, excretion of heavy metals through defecation and/or molting, induction of metal-detoxifying proteins and even development of local adaptation.

Clarifying insect sex determination mechanisms can lay a strong theoretical basis for sex-ratio manipulation, and can also help us to develop new ways for effective pest control. Insects have evolved a bewildering diversity of mechanisms to generate the two sexes. However, the sexual development of an insect is mainly defined through a hierarchical control of several sex determining genes. This article summarized the recent studies and progress in sex determination mechanisms in model insects, focusing on genes and their cascade interactions involved in sex determination. Previous studies have demonstrated that the important sex determination genes are mainly located on autosome, and some of them have close cascade interactions, such as Sxl, tra,dsx, csd, fem, etc. Among these genes, tra and  dsx are functionally conserved, and tra regulates the transcription of the downstream gene—dsx through sex-specific alternative splicing. The tra/fem→dsx mode of sex determination is prevalent in most studied insects. Although sex determination mechanisms in most insects remain largely unclear, the study of sex determination mechanisms in some model insects has achieved great progress in recent years. Moreover, the mechanism study of sex determination in nonmodel insects has attracted extensive attention though it is still in its infancy stage.

Geminiviruses are transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci in a persistent, circulative manner. Successful transmission of the virus from host to host requires three crucial steps: virus acquisition, retention and transmission. Many factors are involved in this process, including certain proteins from the vectors (e.g, receptors of the virus), viral proteins and host plant factors. In this article, we reviewed the factors that affect the transmission specificities of geminiviruses by whiteflies as well as direct and indirect interactions between whiteflies and geminiviruses. The transmission efficiency of geminivirus depends on a number of variables, e.g., the species of whiteflies and viruses involved, specific organs or cells of whitefly, whitefly and viral proteins, and hidden players like endosymbionts. The long-term association of the virus with the whiteflies and its host plants renders the virus the potential to alter the characteristics of its vector and host to facilitate its transmission.

【Aim】 This study aims to determine the infection rate and taxonomic identity of the endosymbiont Wolbachia in the populations of Bradysia odoriphaga Yang et Zhang in Shandong Province, so as to reveal the potential effects of this endosymbiont on B. odoriphaga. 【Methods】 The species identity of 12 chive maggot populations collected in Shandong was first identified based on the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtCOI) gene. Two pairs of primers (16S-F/16S-R and 81F/691R) were used to detect the infection of Wolbachia in the 11 populations identified as B. odoriphaga. The Wolbachia infecting these B. odoriphaga populations were further identified based on the 16S rDNA sequence. 【Results】 Compared with the infection rates of Wolbachia (ranging from 6.67% to 93.33%) based on 16S-F/16S-R primers, the infection rate of Wolbachia based on 81F/691R primers was relatively low (0.00%-40.00%). Phylogenetic tree based on the 16S rDNA sequence showed that all of the Wolbachia detected belonged to group A. 【Conclusion】 This study reveals the infection rate of Wolbachia in B. odoriphaga in Shandong and their taxonomic position, and these results provide the basis for future study on the effects of Wolbachia on the biology and ecology of B. odoriphaga.

【Aim】 Bactrocera latifrons (Hendel) is one of the most important plant quarantine pests in plant production and trade, and it has wide host range and causes serious damage. Traditional identification methods are limited by such factors as raising period, feeding conditions and developmental stage, thus limiting the clearance rate of customs and quick identification of infestation situation of fruits. For this reason, a rapid identification technique for fruit fly species is desperately needed. 【Methods】 A pair of primers, FL680 and RL1057, was designed and synthesized based on the mtDNA COI sequence. For the PCR amplification and gel electrophoresis, B. latifrons (Hendel) was chosen as the positive control and other 20 species of fruit flies including B. correcta (Bezzi), B. dorsalis (Hendel) and B. cilifer (Hendel) were used as the negative controls. 【Results】 A clear and single 378 bp band was amplified only from B. latifrons, but not from the other 20 fruit flies. The SS-PCR identification method established in this experiment was applied and verified in inspection and quarantine, indicating that this method has high species specificity. 【Conclusion】 The rapid identification method developed here for B. latifrons can be applied in infestation monitoring and quarantine surveillance of fruit flies in ports.

The green ash, Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh., is infested with a leafcurl ash aphid in Beijing, China. Colonies of compact aphids live in curled leaves on the tips of twigs throughout the vegetation period. It causes malformations and some curled leaves turn to yellow. It was identified as an alien species, the Nearctic species Prociphilus fraxinifolii  (Riley, 1879). This is the first record of the species in China. The present paper described its diagnostic characteristics and recorded five predatory natural enemies (Harmonia axyridis, Chrysopa pallens, Episyrphus balteata, Deraeocoris punctulatus and Deraeocoris ater) and three attending ants (Camponotus japonicus, Formica fusca, and Lasius niger) of this aphid found in Beijing.