Insecticide Susceptibility and KDR Mutations in Aedes Albopictus Collected from Seven Districts of Guangyuan city, Northern Sichuan, China.

The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is an important vector of chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever, and Zika viruses. Vector control remains an important means for the prevention and control of vector-borne diseases. The development of insecticide resistance has become a serious threat to the efficacy of insecticide-based control programs. To understand the resistance status and the underlying genetic mechanism in mosquitoes in Guangyuan City of Sichuan Province, China, we investigated the susceptibility of Ae. albopictus to four commonly used insecticides. We found that all the examined populations were susceptible to malathion and propoxur. However, Ae. albopictus populations in Guangyuan showed a possible resistance to the two tested pyrethroids (beta-cypermethrin and deltamethrin). Notably, phenotypic resistance to deltamethrin was detected in 2 of the 7 populations. The potential of resistance to pyrethroids was confirmed by the presence of knockdown resistance (kdr) related mutations in the voltage-gated sodium channel. Four kdr mutations (V1016G, I1532T, F1534L, and F1534S) were identified to be present alone or in combination, and their distribution displayed significant spatial heterogeneity. These findings are helpful for making evidence-based mosquito control strategies and highlight the need to regularly monitor the dynamics of pyrethroid resistance in this city.

Species diversity revealed in Sigmella Hebard, 1929 (Blattodea, ectobiidae) based on morphology and four molecular species delimitation methods.

Cockroaches are one of the major decomposers involved in biogeochemical cycles. Cockroaches have an amazing amount of diversity, but most of them remain unknown due to the shortage of the trained taxonomists and the limitations of morphology-based identification. We obtained 49 COI sequences (including 42 novel sequences) and 32 novel 28S sequences for 5 Sigmella morphospecies collected from 11 localities. Three are new to science: Sigmella digitalis sp. nov., Sigmella exserta sp. nov. and Sigmella normalis sp. nov. Based on four species delimitation methods (ABGD, GMYC, BINs and bPTP), a total of 6 molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) were recovered for 5 morphospecies. These were then confirmed by tree building methods using COI and combined data (COI and 28S). We detected more than one MOTU in the morphospecies S. digitalis sp. nov., which can indicate genetic diversity. Detailed morphological evidence for each MOTU is provided to confirm these slight variations and we conclude that natural barriers are likely the main cause of genetic diversity.

Establishment of a new genus, Brephallus Wang et al., gen. nov. (Blattodea, Blaberidae, Epilamprinae) based on two species from Pseudophoraspis, with details of polymorphism in species of Pseudophoraspis.

Brephallus Wang et al., gen. n. is established as a genus distinct from Pseudophoraspis Kirby, 1903 because of the lack of a well-developed apical outgrowth on sclerite L2D and substantial genetic differences. Two species are transferred to the new genus from Pseudophoraspis, i.e., Brephallusfruhstorferi (Shelford, 1910), comb. n. and Brephallustramlapensis (Anisyutkin, 1999), comb. n. We provide a detailed generic diagnosis of Brephallus Wang et al., gen. n. Based on COI data, males, females and nymphs of three Pseudophoraspis species (P.clavellata Wang et al., 2013, P.recurvata Wang et al., 2013 and P.kabakovi Anisyutkin, 1999) were successfully matched. The former two are sexually dimorphic with macropterous males and micropterous females. Photos of the species from China are presented.