“…Interestingly, apart from identifying Oatp74D orthologs in S. frugiperda and H. armigera, it was found that mosquitoes do not have Oatp74D orthologs, although they belong to arthropods (Fig 1). In agreement with this result, a very recent study reports the existence of additional ecdysone importers EcI-2, EcI-3 and EcI-4 in Aedes aegypti, with EcI-2 being necessary for development [26]. The fact that orthologs of the latter ecdysone transporters exist in D. melanogaster, but have no dominant role in development, exemplifies why further functional characterization of Oatp74D was needed to assess its essentiality in the two lepidopteran pests of our interest.…”