Cold tolerance of the maize orange leafhopper, Cicadulina bipunctata

• Cicadulina bipunctata is expanding its distribution from tropical to temperate region.
• Cold acclimation at 15 °C enhances cold tolerance of C. bipunctata.
• Adult female is more tolerance to cold temperature than male.
• Indirect chilling injury results in <1% overwintering rate in temperate Japan.
• Degree of indirect chilling injury depends on temperature from −5 to 5 °C.

Cicadulina bipunctata was originally distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World. This leafhopper recently expanded its distribution area to southern parts of temperate Japan. In this study, factors affecting the overwintering ability of C. bipunctata were examined. A series of laboratory experiments revealed that cold acclimation at 15 °C for 7 days enhanced the cold tolerance of C. bipunctata to the same level as an overwintering population, adult females were more tolerant of cold temperature than adult males, and survival of acclimated adult females was highly dependent on temperature from −5 to 5 °C and exposure duration to the temperature. The temperature of crystallization of adult females was approximately −19 °C but temperatures in southern temperate Japan rarely dropped below −10 °C in the winter, indicating that overwintering C. bipunctata adults in temperate Japan are not killed by freezing injury but by indirect chilling injury caused by long-term exposure to moderately low temperatures. An overwintering generation of C. bipunctata had extremely low overwinter survival (<1%) in temperate Japan; however, based on winter temperature ranges, there are additional areas amenable to expansion of C. bipunctata in temperate Japan.

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