Kapok is the main host of Glenea cantor (Fabricius), which causes serious damage and is difficult to control. In severe cases, it often causes the kapok trees to die continuously, which seriously affects the results of urban landscaping. To provide reference for the functional research on related genes in G. cantor, we screened the stable expression of candidate reference genes at different developmental stages (i.e., eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults), in various adult tissues (i.e., head, thorax, abdomen, feet, antennae, and wings), and sexes (i.e., male pupae, female pupae, male adults, and female adults). In this study, 12 candidate reference genes (i.e., ACTINLIKE, ACTININ, TUB, RPL36, RPL32, RPS20, TBP, GAPDH, 18S rRNA, EF1A1, EF1A2, and UBQ) were evaluated using different adult tissues, developmental stages, and sexes. RefFinder, geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper were used to evaluate and comprehensively analyze the stability of the expression of the candidate reference genes. The results show that RPL32 and EF1A1 were the most suitable reference genes in the different adult tissues, and RPL36 and EF1A1 were best at the different developmental stages. RPL36 and EF1A2 were the best fit for the qRT-PCR reference genes in the different sexes, while RPL36 and EF1A1 were the most appropriate qRT-PCR reference genes in all samples. Results from geNorm showed that the optimal number of reference genes was two. We also surveyed the expression of cellulase at the different developmental stages and in the different adult tissues. Results further verified the reliability of the reference genes, and confirmed the best reference genes under the different experimental conditions. This study provides a useful tool for molecular biological studies on G. cantor.

Neuropeptides and neuropeptide receptors are crucial regulators to insect physiological processes. The 21.0 Gb bases were obtained from Illumina sequencing of two libraries representing the female and male heads of Phauda flammans (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Phaudidae), which is a diurnal defoliator of ficus plants and usually outbreaks in the south and south-east Asia, to identify differentially expressed genes, neuropeptides and neuropeptide receptor whose tissue expressions were also evaluated. In total, 99,386 unigenes were obtained, in which 156 up-regulated and 61 down-regulated genes were detected. Fifteen neuropeptides (i.e., F1b, Ast, NP1, IMF, Y, BbA1, CAP2b, NPLP1, SIF, CCH2, NP28, NP3, PDP3, ARF2 and SNPF) and 66 neuropeptide receptor genes (e.g., A2-1, FRL2, A32-1, A32-2, FRL3, etc.) were identified and well-clustered with other lepidopteron. This is the first sequencing, identification neuropeptides and neuropeptide receptor genes from P. flammans which provides valuable information regarding the molecular basis of P. flammans.

Glenea cantor Fabricius (Cerambycidae: Lamiinae) is a pest that devastates urban landscapes and causes ecological loss in southern China and Southeast Asian countries where its main host kapok trees are planted. The olfactory system plays a vital role in mating, foraging, and spawning in G. cantor as an ideal target for pest control. However, the olfactory mechanism of G. cantor is poorly understood at the molecular level. In this study, we first established the antennal transcriptome of G. cantor and identified 76 olfactory-related genes, including 29 odorant binding proteins (OBPs), 14 chemosensory proteins (CSPs), 13 odorant receptors (ORs), 18 ionotropic receptors (IRs) and 2 sensory neuron membrane proteins (SNMPs). Furthermore, the phylogenetic trees of olfactory genes were constructed to study the homology with other species of insects. We also verified the reliability of transcriptome differential genes by qRT-PCR, which indicated the reliability of the transcriptome. Based on the relative expression of 30 d adults, GcanOBP22 and GcanOBP25 were highly expressed not only in the antennae, but also in the wings and legs. In addition, GcanCSP4 was the highest expression on the female antennae at 12 d. These findings laid the foundation for further research on the mechanism of G. cantor olfactory mechanism at the molecular level.

The complete mitochondrial genome of the Megopis sinica White was sequenced. The 15,689 bp long genome has the standard metazoan complement of 38 genes. These genes contained 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes and 1 control reigion. The nucleotide composition of the M. sinica