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Diapause incidence and critical day length of Asian corn borer (Ostrinia furnacalis) populations exhibit a latitudinal cline in both pure and hybrid strains

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Abstract

The Asian corn borer, Ostrinia furnacalis, is a serious pest and is widely distributed in corn-producing regions throughout China. This insect enters facultative diapause as fully grown larvae in response to short day lengths. Here, we evaluate the changes in diapause incidence and critical day length (CDL) by crossing a tropical strain with five subtropical and temperate strains from a 2897-km latitudinal gradient to investigate the latitudinal variations in diapause induction and CDL and their heredity. Photoperiodic responses of diapause induction in the different geographical strains at different temperatures showed that diapause incidence and CDL increased with increasing latitude and decreased with increasing temperature. Similarly, diapause incidence and CDL for the hybrid strains also showed an increase with increasing latitude or decreasing temperature. Conversely, the diapause incidences were significantly lower and the CDLs were significantly shorter in hybrid strains than their parents with high diapause incidence. Furthermore, the males had significantly more influence than the females on the incidence of diapause in subsequent progeny. Diapause incidence and CDL in O. furnacalis are strikingly different among pure strains and hybrid strains. The photoperiodic response controlling diapause is strongly heritable, with diapause being a partial dominant character over nondiapause, with the incidence of diapause mainly determined by the male parent. These results can help us to predict the time course of diapause induction in nature and may provide a genetic means for pest management by providing information on the overwintering capabilities of the hybrids.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Shaohui Wu from the Department of Entomology, University of Georgia (Tifton, GA) for providing critical comments and polishing the language of the manuscript. We also thank all the students in the laboratory for helping with the experiment. This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31260430).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Environment, YuZhang Normal University, Nanchang, China

    Lili Huang

  2. Institute of Entomology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, 330045, China

    Lili Huang, Chao Chen, Haimin He & Fangsen Xue

  3. College of Computer and Information Engineering, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, China

    Jianjun Tang

  4. Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Chao Chen

  5. State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yulin Gao

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  1. Lili Huang
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Correspondence to Fangsen Xue.

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10340_2019_1179_MOESM1_ESM.tif

S1 Figure The relationship between the critical day length (CDL) and latitude for five pure geographical strains of O. furnacalis at 22, 25 and 28 °C. Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals (TIFF 275 kb)

10340_2019_1179_MOESM2_ESM.tif

S2 Figure The relationship between the critical day length (CDL) and latitude for hybrid strains of O. furnacalis with LD mothers (A: LD × GZ, LD × NC, LD × TA, LD × LF, LD × HB) or with LD fathers (B: GZ × LD, NC × LD, TA × LD, LF × LD, HB × LD) at 22, 25 and 28 °C. Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals (TIFF 494 kb)

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Huang, L., Tang, J., Chen, C. et al. Diapause incidence and critical day length of Asian corn borer (Ostrinia furnacalis) populations exhibit a latitudinal cline in both pure and hybrid strains. J Pest Sci 93, 559–568 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-019-01179-5

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