Syrphidae is one of the most speciose families of true flies, with more than 6,100 described species and a worldwide distribution. They are important to humans because they act as crucial pollinators, biological control agents, decomposers and bioindicators. This study was conducted to determine the biology and behavior of Eupeodes corollae, which is an important pollinator and enemy of aphid, including prey consumption, mating behavior, oviposition, and predation of larvae, to provide a basis for breeding and in-depth study. Results indicated that adult life expectancies were 17.2 ± 1.2 days (n = 16) for males and 19.6 ± 1.3 days (n = 16) for females, average number of eggs laid by females was 799.2±49.9 (n=16) and the hatch rate was over 90%. Larval development required 7.9 ± 0.8 days (n = 40), and 997.9 ± 47.8 Aphis craccivora (n = 10) were consumed by each larva. Pupa lasted 7.2 ± 0.4 days (n = 40) in the root of the host plant, on the edge of the seedling basin, or 0.1-1.0 cm below the soil.

The black citrus aphid, Aphis aurantiiBoyer de Fonscolombe, 1841, is one of the most destructive pests in commercial tea plantations and gardens in China. In this study, we investigated the population genetic structure of A. aurantii based on the concatenated sequences of two mitochondrial genes, cytochrome c oxidase I (cox1) and cytochrome b (cytb). A total of 166 haplotypes were identified from 177 individuals collected at 11 locations in China. The whole Chinese A. aurantii population showed a low nucleotide diversity (0.00968) and a high population diversity (haplotype diversity; 0.9991). The haplotypes of the 11 local populations were widely distributed in the neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree and haplotype network diagram, whereas no apparent lineages were detected. Gene flow analysis showed gene exchanges among local populations. The pairwise Fst values revealed a certain amount of genetic difference among local populations. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) reflected genetic differences both within and among populations. The isolation by distance (IBD) analysis revealed a high positive correlation between the geographic distance and genetic distance of the different populations. Neutral test and mismatch distribution suggested that A. aurantii may have experienced recent population expansion events.

The ladybeetle Coccinella septempunctata Linnaeus is an important natural enemy of aphids, scale insects, whitefly, and lepidopteran larvae. Mass rearing of this natural enemy is limited due to the lack of effective artificial feed. We compared the biological performance of C. septempunctata, reared on four artificial diets (A, B, C, and D), while the pea aphid Aphis craccivora served as a control treatment (CK). Results showed that the developmental time before emergence ranked from short to long follow as: CK (12.30d) C (87.50%) = D (87.50%) > B (80.00%) > A (57.50%), and new adult weight from high to low follow as: CK (339.50 g*0.0001) > A (205.33 g*0.0001) > D (197.68 g*0.0001) > B (174.89 g*0.0001) > C (169.46 g*0.0001). The ratios of fecundity between the experimental group and the control group were 80.46% (A), 39.24% (B), 45.31% (C), and 53.02% (D). The hatch rates were 59.50% (A), 46.00% (B), 57.65% (C), 54.50% (D), and 53.88% (CK). The mortality of C. septempunctata adults fed on a combined artificial diet was higher than those fed on the control diet. Compared to the control diet, C. septempunctata did not significantly reduce oviposition when fed on artificial diet A. Therefore, diet A can be used in mass-rearing of C. septempunctata.

Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky, 1854) and Demonax pseudonotabilis Gressitt & Rondon, 1970 are two commonly found longicorn beetles from China. However, the lack of sufficient molecular data hinders the understanding of their evolution and phylogenetic relationships with other species of Cerambycidae. This study sequenced and assembled the complete mitochondrial genomes of the two species using the next-generation sequencing method. The mitogenomes of A. glabripennis and D. pseudonotabilis are 15,622 bp and 15,527 bp in length, respectively. The mitochondrial gene content and gene order of A. glabripennis and D. pseudonotabilis are highly conserved with other sequenced longicorn beetles. The calculation of nonsynonymous (Ka) and synonymous (Ks) substitution rates in PCGs indicated the existence of purifying selection in the two longicorn beetles. The phylogenetic analysis was conducted using the protein-coding gene sequences from available mitogenomes of Cerambycidae. The two species sequenced in this study are, respectively, grouped with their relatives from the same subfamily. The monophyly of Cerambycinae, Dorcasominae, Lamiinae, and Necydalinae was well-supported, whereas Lepturinae, Prioninae, and Spondylidinae were recovered as paraphyletic.