Resistance of the house fly Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae) to lambda-cyhalothrin: mode of inheritance, realized heritability, and cross-resistance to other insecticides

Abstract

Lambda-cyhalothrin, a pyrethroid insecticide, has been used frequently for the control of house flies, Musca domestica L., worldwide including Pakistan. To assess the resistance risk and design a resistance management strategy, a house fly population was exposed to lambda-cyhalothrin in the laboratory to assess inheritance and heritability, and cross-resistance to other insecticides, including different chemical classes. After 11 generations of selection, the population developed 113.57-fold resistance to lambda-cyhalothrin compared to the susceptible population. There was no cross-resistance to bifenthrin and methomyl, but very low cross-resistance to abamectin and indoxacarb in the lambda-cyhalothrin selected population compared to the field population. Synergism bioassay with piperonyl butoxide and S,S,S-tributylphosphorotrithioate indicated that lambda-cyhalothrin resistance was associated with microsomal oxidases and esterases. The LC50 values of F1 (Lambda-SEL ♀ × Susceptible ♂) and F'1 (Lambda-SEL ♂ × Susceptible ♀) populations were not significantly different and dominance (DLC) values were 0.68 and 0.62. The resistance to lambda-cyhalothrin was completely recessive (DML = 0.00) at highest dose and completely dominant at lowest dose (DML = 0.95). The monogenic model of inheritance showed that lambda-cyhalothrin resistance was controlled by multiple factors. The heritability values were 0.20, 0.04, 0.003, 0.07 and 0.08 for lambda-cyhalothrin, bifenthrin, methomyl, indoxacarb and abamectin resistance, respectively. It was concluded that lambda-cyhalothrin resistance in house flies was autosomally inherited, incompletely dominant and controlled by multiple factors. These findings would be helpful to improve the management of house flies.