Imidacloprid resistance and its mechanisms in field populations of brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens Stål in China

Imidacloprid is a key insecticide universally used for control of brown planthopper (BPH), and its resistance had been studied previously with laboratory selected strains. When the failure in field control happened in China in 2005, imidacloprid resistance in field populations of BPH (AQ, NJ, GL and WJ) was monitored and studied. The results demonstrated that the BPH of field populations had developed moderate to high level of resistance to imidacloprid. This resistance is attributed mainly to the enhanced P450 monooxygenases detoxification and could be enhanced in the same growing season if the insecticide was sprayed over and over. Further studies revealed that imidacloprid resistant hoppers did not show cross-resistance to all the neonicotinoid insecticides and high level of imidacloprid resistance in BPH was very unstable. Thus, efficient substitute neonicotinoids could be selected and “window control” could be implemented in resistance management. For checking the resistance mutation previously reported in laboratory selected strains, new corresponding target subunit genes were cloned and sequenced, but no mutations were found associated consistently with resistance.