Fall Armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, is a polyphagous pest capable of feeding over 80 plant species and was indigenous to the Western Hemisphere. Within a span of 4 years, FAW has established itself throughout most of the regions in Africa and Asia causing significant losses in maize production. Owing to its revamped distribution range, it would be prudent to analyze the ensuing genetic changes and study the emerging phylogeographic patterns across the world. In this regard, we would like to provide a current snapshot of genetic diversity of FAW in India 2 years after the initial introduction and compare it with the worldwide diversity in order to trace the origins and evolutionary trajectories of FAW in India. We have investigated around 190 FAW samples from different regions in India for strain identity and polymorphism analysis on the basis of partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene sequences. Apart from the ancestral rice and corn strain haplotype, our study demonstrates the presence of 14 more haplotypes unique to India at a haplotype diversity of 0.356. We were also able to record inter-strain hybrid haplotypes of rice and corn strains in India. Regional heterogeneity within Indian populations seems to be quite low representative of extensive migration of FAW within India. Distribution analysis of pairwise differences and rejection of neutrality tests suggest that the FAW population in India might be undergoing expansion. Our data is consistent with the findings suggesting a recent and common origin for invasive FAW populations in Asia and Africa, and does not indicate multiple introductions to India. This study reports the highest genetic diversity for Indian FAW populations to date and will be useful to track the subsequent evolution of FAW in India. The findings would have important ramifications for FAW behavior and composition throughout the world.

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The shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) is the major cause of low productivity in eggplant and insecticides being the mainstay of management of L. orbonalis. However, field control failures are widespread due to the evolution of insecticide resistance. Taking advantage of the whole genome sequence information, the present study investigated the level of insecticide resistance and the expression pattern of individual carboxylesterase (CE) and glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) genes in various field collected populations of L. orbonalis. Dose-mortality bioassays revealed a very high level of resistance development against fenvalerate (48.2–160-fold), phosalone (94-534.6-fold), emamectin benzoate (7.2–55-fold), thiodicarb (9.64–22.7-fold), flubendiamide (187.4–303.0-fold), and chlorantraniliprole (1.6–8.6-fold) in field populations as compared to laboratory-reared susceptible iso-female colony (Lo-S). Over-production of detoxification enzymes viz., CE and GST were evident upon enzyme assays. Mining of the draft genome of L. orbonalis yielded large number of genes potentially belonging to the CE and GST gene families with known history of insecticide resistance in other insects. Subsequent RT-qPCR studies on relative contribution of individual genes revealed over-expression of numerous GSTs and few CEs in field populations, indicating their possible involvement of metabolic enzymes in insecticide resistance. The genomic information will facilitate the development of novel resistance management strategies against this pest.

Genome‐wide analysis of cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (CYP) genes from the advanced genome project of the Leucinodes orbonalis and the expression analysis provided significant information about the metabolism‐mediated insecticide resistance. A total of 72 putative CYP genes were identified from the genome and transcriptome of L. orbonalis. The genes were classified under 30 families and 46 subfamilies based on the standard nomenclature. In the present study, a novel CYP gene, CYP324F1, was identified and it has not been reported from any other living system so far. Biochemical assays showed enhanced titers (5.81–18.5‐fold) of O‐demethylase of CYP in five field‐collected populations. We selected 34 homologous CYP gene sequences, seemed to be involved in insecticide resistance for primer design and quantitative real‐time PCR studies. Among the many overexpressed genes (>10 fold), the expression levels of CYP324F1 and CYP306A1 were prominent across all the field populations as compared with the susceptible iso‐female line. Oral delivery of ds‐CYP324F1 and ds‐CYP306A1 directed against CYP324F1 and CYP306A1 to the larvae of one of the insecticide resistance populations caused reduced expression of these two transcripts in a dose‐dependent manner (53.4%–85.0%). It appears that the increased titer of O‐demethylase is the result of increased transcription level of CYP genes in resistant populations. The data provide insight for identifying the novel resistance management strategies against L. orbonalis.

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Life stages of Henosepilachna implicata (Mulsant), an economically important species of Epilachnini in India, are documented and illustrated. Mitochondrial DNA sequence data is provided for the first time for H. implicata with additional details on its host plants, distribution, and natural enemies. Its similarities and differences with other common pestiferous Henosepilachna spp. in India such as H. vigintioctopunctata (F.), H. septima (Dieke) and H. pusillanima (Mulsant) are discussed. Epilachna circularis Korschefsky, 1933 is found to be conspecific with H. implicata and is reduced to a junior synonym of the latter (new synonym). Notes are given on the distribution and natural enemies of some other species of Epilachnini of the Indian region.