| The striped stem borer Chilo suppressalis that larvae fed on rice, Oryza sativa and water-oats, Zizania latifolia diverged into rice race and water-oat race after long ecological adaptation. Many studies showed that there were some differences between rice race and water-oat race on morphological characters, mating behavior, host-plant preferences, host-plant adaptation, seasonal occurrence, overwintering biology, physiology and biochemistry indexes and genetic diversity. Partial reproductive isolation between the two host-plant races may be based on differences in time of adult emergence, times of mating in night and mismatches of the zygote. As we known, the two host-plant race of C. suppressalis were in the early stage of speciation because there still existed gene flow between the host-plant races. In the future, more attentions should pay to host strains identification, phenotype discrimination and reproductive isolation mechanisms in C. suppressalis, which is important to understand the sympatric speciation mechanism in phytophagous insects. |
About Journal