Inheritance mode and realized heritability of resistance to imidacloprid in Oxycarenus hyalinipennis Costa (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae)

Dusky cotton bug, Oxycarenus hyalinipennis (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae) has become a notorious pest of cotton due to widespread use of Bt cotton. Imidacloprid is a broad spectrum neonicotinoid that has been used for the control of various insect pests worldwide. This study was conducted to explore the genetic mode of imidacloprid resistance in O. hyalinipennis. Continuous selection with imidacloprid for nine generations produced a high level of resistance (104-fold). The CI intervals of LC50 values of both reciprocal crosses (F1 and F1′) were overlapping, exhibiting an autosomal mode of inheritance. The heritability value was 0.33 for imidacloprid resistance. A monogenic model of inheritance revealed that more than one factor is involved in imidacloprid resistance. Imidacloprid resistance in O. hyalinipennis was autosomal, incompletely dominant and polygenic. The present study suggested that such high level of resistance can be controlled by alternating use of insecticides with different modes of action along with timely and accurate application of imidaclopid.