A rapid diagnostic kit for monitoring insecticide phenotypic susceptibility in the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a globally significant agricultural pest with documented resistance to various insecticides. Rapid and accurate diagnostic tools for assessing insecticide susceptibility are urgently needed to enhance the efficiency of pest control for farmers. The modified centrifuge tube bioassay diagnostic kit provides detection results within 3 h, identifying the diagnostic doses as 5087.32 ng/cm² for indoxacarb, 300.35 ng/cm² for chlorpyrifos, and 461.79 ng/cm² for chlorantraniliprole.

A regression equation was established to correlate mortalities at diagnostic doses with actual resistance ratios in various populations of H. armigera using the leaf-dipping method. The diagnostic mortality of H. armigera showed a negative correlation with actual resistance ratios to indoxacarb (r = -0.9674, p = 0.0070), chlorpyrifos (r = -0.8474, p = 0.0696), and chlorantraniliprole (r =-0.8833, p = 0.0470).