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Annual cropping systems consist of a shifting mosaic of habitats that vary through time in their availability and suitability to insect pests. Agroecosystem instability results from changes that occur within a season with crop planting, development, and harvest. Further instability results from continuous alterations in biotic and abiotic insect life system components and from agricultural inputs. Changes to agroecosystems occur across seasons with changing agricultural practices, changing cropping patterns, and technological innovations. Much of this instability is a result of events unconnected with pest management. The abilities of polyphagous pest species to move among and utilize different habitat patches in response to changes in suitability enable the pests to exploit unstable cropping systems. These pest characteristics determine the location and timing of damaging populations. Habitat suitability is influenced by plant species and cultivar, crop phenology, and agricultural inputs. Pest movement is affected by a suite of intrinsic factors, such as population age structure and mobility, and extrinsic factors, including weather systems and habitat distribution. The life systems of three selected polyphagous pests are presented to demonstrate how an understanding of such systems in agricultural ecosystems improves our ability to predict and hence manage these populations.

Background: Cases of western corn rootworm (WCR) field-evolved resistance toCry3Bb1 and other corn rootworm (CRW) control traits have been reported. Pyramid products expressing multiple CRW traits can delay resistance compared to single trait products. We used field studies to assess the pyramid CRW corn products, SmartStax (expressing Cry3Bb1 and Cry34Ab1/Cry35Ab1) and SmartStax PRO (expressing Cry3Bb1, Cry34Ab1/Cry35Ab1 and DvSnf7), at locations with high WCR densities and possible Cry3Bb1 resistance, and to assess the reduction in adult emergence attributable to DvSnf7 and other traits. Insect resistance models were used to assess durability of SmartStax and SmartStax PRO to WCR resistance. Results: SmartStax significantly reduced root injury compared to non-CRW-trait controls at all but one location with measurable WCR pressure, while SmartStax PRO significantly reduced root injury at all locations, despite evidence of Cry3Bb1 resistance at some locations. The advantage of SmartStax PRO over SmartStax in reducing root damage was positively correlated with root damage on non-CRW-trait controls. DvSnf7 was estimated to reduce WCR emergence by approximately 80-95%, which modeling indicated will improve durability of Cry3Bb1 and Cry34Ab1/Cry35Ab1 compared to SmartStax. Conclusion: The addition of DvSnf7 in SmartStax PRO can reduce root damage under high WCR densities and prolong Cry3Bb1 and Cry34Ab1/Cry35Ab1 durability.

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A stochastic spatially explicit computer model is described that simulates the adaptation by western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, to rootworm-resistance traits in maize. The model reflects the ecology of the rootworm in much of the corn belt of the United States. It includes functions for crop development, egg and larval mortality, adult emergence, mating, egg laying, mortality and dispersal, and alternative methods of rootworm control, to simulate the population dynamics of the rootworm. Adaptation to the resistance trait is assumed to be controlled by a monogenic diallelic locus, whereby the allele for adaptation varies from incompletely recessive to incompletely dominant, depending on the efficacy of the resistance trait. The model was used to compare the rate at which the adaptation allele spread through the population under different nonresistant maize refuge deployment scenarios, and under different levels of crop resistance. For a given refuge size, the model indicated that placing the nonresistant refuge in a block within a rootworm-resistant field would be likely to delay rootworm adaptation rather longer than planting the refuge in separate fields in varying locations. If a portion of the refuge were to be planted in the same fields or in-field blocks each year, rootworm adaptation would be delayed substantially. Rootworm adaptation rates are also predicted to be greatly affected by the level of crop resistance, because of the expectation of dependence of functional dominance on dose. If the dose of the insecticidal protein in the maize is sufficiently high to kill >90% of heterozygotes and approximately 100% of susceptible homozygotes, the trait is predicted to be much more durable than if the dose is lower. A partial sensitivity analysis showed that parameters relating to adult dispersal affected the rate of pest adaptation. Partial validation of the model was achieved by comparing output of the model with field data on population dynamics, and with field data documenting rootworm adaptation to cyclodienes and organophosphates.

Evolution of resistance by insect pests is the greatest threat to the continued success of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins used in insecticide formulations or expressed by transgenic crop plants such as Cry1F‐expressing maize [(Zea mays L.) (Poaceae)]. A strain of European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), obtained from field collections throughout the central US Corn Belt in 1996 was selected in the laboratory for resistance to Cry1F by exposure to the toxin incorporated into artificial diet. The selected strain developed more than 3000‐fold resistance to Cry1F after 35 generations of selection and readily consumed Cry1F expressing maize tissue; yet, it was as susceptible to Cry1Ab and Cry9C as the unselected control strain. Only a low level of cross‐resistance (seven‐fold) to Cry1Ac was observed. These lacks of cross‐resistance between Cry1F and Cry1Ab suggest that maize hybrids expressing these two toxins are likely to be compatible for resistance management of O. nubilalis.

Maize, Zea mays L., has been transformed to express the Cry34Ab1 and Cry35Ab1 proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis strain PS149B1. These two proteins act together as a binary insecticidal protein that is effective against corn rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) species. The design of the resistance management plan to preserve the long-term durability of this trait largely depends on the level of rootworm mortality induced by Cry34/35Ab1 corn rootworm-protected maize (frequently referred to as "dose" in this context). Here, we report on studies that showed Cry34/35Ab1-expressing maize event 59122 caused 99.1 to 99.98% mortality of western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, larvae, after adjusting adult emergence numbers for density-dependent mortality. In two of three studies, there was a short delay in time to 50% adult emergence from 59122 maize plots compared with control plots, although emergence was completed at approximately the same time from both types of maize. These data support an expectation that alleles conferring resistance to the Cry34/35Ab1 proteins in western corn rootworm will be functionally nearly completely to completely recessive on 59122 maize and that there is unlikely to be assortative mating of Cry34/35Ab1-resistant and susceptible rootworms. When incorporated into simulation models of rootworm adaptation to transgenic maize, these findings suggest that a 20% refuge is likely to be highly effective at prolonging the durability of 59122 maize.