The green peach aphid, Myzus persicae Sülzer, is an important sap-sucking pest of many plants, including Chinese cabbage. The objective of this study was therefore (1) to determine the effects of sublethal concentrations of afidopyropen, sulfoxaflor, and spirotetramat on adult longevity and the fecundity of M. persicae, and (2) to study the feeding behavior of M. persicae on Chinese cabbage leaves treated with various concentrations of these three insecticides. Longevity and total fecundity of M. persicae adults were decreased at concentrations higher than LC30. Feeding behavior analyses using an electrical penetration graph showed that sublethal concentrations of afidopyropen, sulfoxaflor, and spirotetramat had significant effects on the duration of phloem ingestion.

Sulfoxaflor, a novel sulfoximine insecticide, discovered by and proprietary to Dow AgroSciences is being developed globally. Sulfoxaflor will be used in all major crop groups, including fruits, vegetables, rice, cereals, soybean, and many other crops. Sulfoxaflor provides excellent efficacy at low use rates through contact and ingestion against important and difficult-to-control sap-feeding insect pests, including certain species of aphids, scales, plant bugs, whiteflies, planthoppers and other sap feeders. Sulfoxaflor’s mode of action is via agonism of the insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAchR), which is the same target site of neo-nicotinoid insecticides. However, relative to most neonicotinoids, sulfoxaflor is a high efficacy agonist of the nAchR with relatively low affinity for the imidacloprid binding site. Furthermore, sulfoxaflor is less susceptible to metabolism by monooxygenase enzymes and displays a broad lack of metabolism-based cross-resistance with neonicotinoids. This difference as well as its novel chemical structure led to sulfoxaflor being designated as the sole member of Group 4, Subgroup C of the IRAC Mode of Action Classification Scheme. Because of broad lack of crossresistance, sulfoxaflor will be a useful rotational partner with other insecticide chemistries, enhancing Insect Resistance Management strategies. In Korea, sulfoxaflor is being developed for use in fruit and leafy and fruiting vegetable by several companies. Results from several laboratory and field trials revealed that sulfoxaflor at use rate of 35 ppm (7% product, X2,000 dilution rate) provided excellent performance against economically important aphids in several crops compared with current sap-feeding pest control agents. Sulfoxaflor was registered in October 2011 as brandname TRANSFORM® (Sulfoxaflor 7% SC which is produced by Dongbu Hannong) will be launched for apple, pear and red-pepper in 2012.