Evolutionary Genetics of Insecticide Resistance and the Effects of Chemical Rotation

Repeated use of the same class of pesticides to control a target pest is a form of artificial selection that leads to pesticide resistance. We studied insecticide resistance and cross-resistance to five commercial insecticides in each of six populations of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. We estimated the dosage response curves for lethality in each parent population for each insecticide and found an 800-fold difference among populations in resistance to insecticides. As expected, a naive laboratory population was among the most sensitive of populations to most insecticides. We then used inbred lines derived from five of these populations to estimate the heritability (h2) of resist