Abstract: | One or more weak factors of resistance on autosome 2, and barely detectable resistance on autosome 3, confer moderate resistance to several pyrethroids (5–13-fold) in the field-collected Ipswich strain of houseflies. In these flies, which unlike other pyrethroid-resistant strains lack kdr or super-kdr, pyrethroid resistance probably developed in response to prolonged treatment of buildings for animals with pyrethrins synergised with piperonyl butoxide. Substrains, isolated genetically from Ipswich flies and with resistance only on autosome 2, degraded permethrin more rapidly than susceptible flies and produced larger amounts of very polar metabolites. In this, they differed from flies with kdr or super-kdr which resembled susceptible flies in their metabolism of permethrin. NIA 16388 (propyl prop-2-ynyl phenylphosphonate) was a better synergist and reduced the metabolism of permethrin more than piperonyl butoxide in both the susceptible and resistant insects. The slight increase in synergism and minimal decrease in metabolism when piperonyl butoxide was applied with NIA 16388 indicated that the latter also inhibited detoxication that was sensitive to piperonyl butoxide. |