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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2020, Vol. 19 Issue (6): 1458-1463    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(19)62862-5
Special Focus: Physiology and interaction of insects with environmental factors Advanced Online Publication | Current Issue | Archive | Adv Search |
Morphological traits for sex identification of the oriental armyworm, Mythimna separata (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)
CHEN Lin1, 2, PAN Qin-jian1, Muhammad Saad WAQAS2, LIU Tong-xian
1 State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas/Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management on the Loess Plateau, Ministry of Agriculture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, P.R.China
2 State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology/MOA Key Lab of Molecular Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects/ Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, P.R.China
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Abstract  
The oriental armyworm, Mythimna separata (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a harmful pest which causes heavy loss in agricultural crops.  Sex identification of M. separata is very important for understanding the biology and management of this pest.  Development of fast and convenient methods to identify M. separata female and male is the necessary prerequisite for conducting gender-related studies.  In this study, new methods to differentiate sex of M. separata at pupal and adult stages were investigated.  Our results showed that posterior abdominal segments containing genital organs which are morphological traits to differentiate female and male.  Genital openings are important characters for the female and male pupae differentiation.  For female pupa, it locates on the ventral side of eighth and ninth abdominal segments and appears as a visible longitudinal suture; for male pupa, it locates on the ventral side of the ninth abdominal segment and appears as a short slit surrounded by a pair of visible semicircular lumps.  Bristle numbers are another indicator for sex differentiation of adults.  Each female has three-bristled frenulum and each male has one bristled-frenulum near the base of hind wing of each side of moth body.  We confirmed the two sex differentiation methods manually by dissecting genitalia of adults and found their genger was as same as what we examined the sex of pupae and adults using the morphological methods.
 
Keywords:  sex identification        pupa and adult        genital opening        frenulum        genitalia  
Received: 30 August 2019   Accepted:
Fund: This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31601691 and 31272089). The authors thank Dr. Xue Shuang (Anyang Institute of Technology, Henan Province, China) for technical assistance in dissecting genitalia.
Corresponding Authors:  Correspondence PAN Qin-jian, Mobile: +86-17326089056, E-mail: panqinjian123@163.com; LIU Tong-xian, Tel: +86-29-87082325, E-mail: txliu@nwsuaf.edu.cn   
About author:  CHEN Lin, Mobile: +86-18143465653, E-mail: chenlin88@126.com;

Cite this article: 

CHEN Lin, PAN Qin-jian, Muhammad Saad WAQAS, LIU Tong-xian . 2020. Morphological traits for sex identification of the oriental armyworm, Mythimna separata (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 19(6): 1458-1463.


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