Liu J., Yan Y., Yu M., Parajulee † M.N., Shi P., Liu J., Zhao Z. (2017): Using the LoeSS method to describe the effect of temperature on development rate. Plant Protect. Sci., 53: 226-231.Temperature has a significant influence on development rates of insects and mites. Many parametric models were built to describe the temperature-dependent development rates. However, these models provided different shapes of the curves of development rate versus temperature. For different datasets, investigators have to spend much time on considering which the parametric model is the best for describing the temperature-dependent development rates. In the present study, we encourage investigators to use an important non-parametric model, the LoeSS method, which belongs to local regression methods. The LoeSS method is used to fit some published data on the development rate of aphids to check the goodness-of-fit. We find that the LoeSS method is very flexible for fitting the given datasets. Thus, we consider that the LoeSS method can be used to describe the effect of temperature on the development rate of insects or mites.Keywords: non-parametric model; local regression; weighted least squares; AphididaeIn general, one insect or mite species needs to experience different developmental stages in its lifecycle. Completing each developmental stage requires a period of time, which is referred to as development time (or development duration). The reciprocal characteristic of development time is referred to as development rate. It has been demonstrated that temperature has a strong influence on development rate (Campbell et al. 1974;Taylor 1981). Development rate is regarded as a linear function of temperature over the range of moderate temperatures (Campbell et al. 1974;Zhao et al. 2012). However, this linear relationship between development rate and temperature does not fit if temperatures were not in this range. Several non-linear models have been developed for describing the effect of temperature on development rate (e.g., Logan et al.