Management of pyrethroid and endosulfan resistance in Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Australia

his issue is devoted to various aspects of an insecticide resistance management (IRM) strategy introduced into the summer rainfall cropping areas of eastern Australia in the 1983-84 season. The aims of this strategy were to manage pyrethroid and endosulfan resistance problems in Helicoverpa armigera, and to avoid any possible future problems with organophosphate or carbamate resistance. The issue is arranged in the following sections: the Australian insecticide resistance management strategy; evaluation of the impact of the strategy on pyrethroid and endosulfan resistance: discriminating dose studies; evaluation of the impact of the strategy on pyrethroid resistance: F1 analyses; pyrethroid and endosulfan resistance: selection and cross resistance studies; pyrethroid and endosulfan resistance: biology of resistant and susceptible larvae and pupae; pyrethroid resistance: field selection in sorghum; pyrethroid resistance: selection of adults; pyrethroid resistance: field resistance mechanisms; pyrethroid resistance: synergists; and pyrethroid resistance: resistance breaking pyrethroids. It was shown that insecticide resistance can be managed to at least slow down the progress of resistance, thereby extending the usefulness of available chemicals, and the monitoring technique employed in the study (discriminating dose screening of larvae reared from field-collected eggs) proved extremely successful and had a number of advantages over the conventional resistance monitoring technique (full bioassay of laboratory-reared F1 progeny) or the alternative discriminating dose testing of pheromone-trapped males of uncertain age or previous pesticide exposure.