In vertebrates, it is well documented that the parental consumption of high-fat diet increases the risk of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in offspring. While insects have long been used as popular study organisms in various biological research, few studies have explored how the nutritional quality of parental diet affects offspring behavioral phenotypes associated with ADHD in insects. Here we used the bean bug, Riptortus pedestris (Hemiptera: Alydidae), as a study organism to test the effect of parental high-fat diet on offspring hyperactivity, impulsivity, and diffuse attention, which are widely held as the three core symptoms of ADHD in vertebrates. Peanut was used as the high-fat diet while soybean was the control. Parental high-fat diet consumption induced hyperactivity in R. pedestris offspring. Compared to the controls, the hyperactive offspring of parents fed on high-fat diet were behaviorally more impulsive and less attentive, as they were found to be highly attracted to visual stimuli but losing attention easily. Collectively, these results provide the experimental evidence that the parental consumption of high-fat diet results in increased hyperactivity, impulsivity, and diffuse attention in an insect. This study implies that the well-known association between parental high-fat diet and offspring ADHD is conserved across the tree of life and opens up the new horizons that insects can arise as novel and feasible models for studying the mechanism and evolution of this common neurodevelopmental disorder in humans.

Riptortus pedestris is known to acquire their symbiotic bacteria, Caballeronia insecticola, from soil environments in every generation. The symbionts have been demonstrated to affect behavioral and physiological traits of the host insect such as the enhancement of development. In particular, symbiotic effects on female adults could directly entail changes in their population growth. Therefore, we investigated a suite of symbiotic effects of C. insecticola on behaviors and fitness-related parameters of female R. pedestris. Overall, symbiotic females showed an behavioral enhancement in both feeding efficacy and movement capacity including walking and flight. In addition, the survival rates under exposure to overwintering conditions and insecticide resistance level were significantly higher in symbiotic females than the aposymbiotic. Finally, although symbiotic females exhibited shorter longevity, their fecundity was found higher compared to the apo-symbiotic.

단감 과수원에서 문제가 되고 있는 노린재의 방제 목적으로 사용되는 페로몬트랩의 유인거리를 확인하고, 페로몬트랩의 효율을 증가시킬 수 있는 끈끈이트랩의 사용효과에 대하여 알아보고자 수행되었다. 노린재에 마커로 표시한 후 방사하여 페로몬트랩과 끈끈이트랩에 재포획된 개체수를 조사하였다. 그 결과, 페로몬트랩에 톱다리개미허리노린재가 60 m까지 유인되는 것을 확인하였으며, 끈끈이트랩의 포획률은 0주차 35%, 1주에서 27%, 2주에서 34%, 3주에서 2.9%, 4주에서 0.6%로, 3주 이후부터 급격히 낮아지는 것을 확인하였다. 페로몬트랩과 끈끈이트랩을 동시에 사용한 경우가 페로몬트랩만 단일로 사용한 경우보다 약 12배 높은 포획률을 보였다.