Population Numbers and Physiological Response of an Invasive and Native Thrip Species Following Repeated Exposure to Imidacloprid.

and are devastating pest insects that target , , and , which are important economical horticultural plants in China. Meanwhile, and are important cash plants in Kunming, South China. We focus on the population performance of these two thrips species on these three host plants with or without repeated exposure to imidacloprid in Kunming. In the field, the population numbers of developed faster and were larger on these three sampled host plants, especially under imidacloprid exposure, compared with . The activity of the detoxifying enzymes (CarE, AchE, and MFO) and the antioxidant enzymes (CAT and POD) in both thrips species were significantly enhanced under imidacloprid exposure, whereas the activities of SOD in both thrips were significantly decreased on these three host plants, compared with the control. Overall, enzyme activity of showed a greater increase than that observed in in most cases, which could be exploited in further studies on thrips resistance management.