Monitoring of beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) resistance to chlorantraniliprole in China

Beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua is a major insect pest of vegetables in China, and has been reported to develop resistance to many broad-spectrum insecticides. Recently registered chlorantraniliprole provides a novel option for control of this pest resistant to other conventional insecticides. The susceptibilities of field collected populations were measured by diet incorporation assay with neonate, obvious variation of susceptibility was observed among the 18 field populations with LC₅₀ values varying from 0.039 to 0.240 mg/liter. Moderate resistant level was discovered in 8 of 18 field populations, other 8 populations had become low level tolerance to chlorantraniliprole, and only one population in all the field colonies remained susceptible. Biochemical assays were performed to determine the potential mechanisms involved in tolerance variation. Field populations displayed varied detoxification enzyme activities, but the regression analysis between chlorantraniliprole toxicities and enzyme activities demonstrated each field population might have specific biochemical mechanisms for tolerance. Artificial selection in laboratory with chlorantraniliprole was carried out, 23 generations of continuous selections resulted in 11.8-fold increase in resistance to chlorantraniliprole, and 3.0-fold and 3.7-fold increases in mixed function oxidase and esterase, respectively. Compared with the susceptible strain kept in laboratory the selection strain had developed 128.6-fold resistance to this insecticide. Synergism assays showed the detoxification enzymes might not involved in the resistance observed in field collected populations and the selected strain.