Cydia pomonella is a serious invasive insect pest in China, and has caused severe damage to the production of apple and pear in its invaded areas. This species is distributing in the northwest and northeast of China, but no occurrence of it has been recorded in the large areas (about 3000-5000 km away) between the invaded northwestern and northeastern regions despite continuous monitoring. As yet the genetic diversity and invasion origin of the C. pomonella populations in Northwestern and Northeastern China is obscure. In this study, we investigate the genetic diversity of 14 populations of C. pomonella sampled throughout the main distribution regions in Northwestern (Xinjiang and Gansu Provinces) and Northeastern (Heilongjiang Province) China and compared them with nine populations from Europe and other continents using the mitochondrial COI, COII and Cytb genes. Both the populations from Northeastern and Northwestern China shared some haplotypes with populations from other countries. Haplotypes of the three mitochondrial genes had a different distribution in Northeastern and Northwestern China. The northeastern populations had more private haplotypes than the northwestern populations. A large number of the individuals from northwestern populations shared a few haplotypes of each of the three genes. The haplotype numbers and haplotype diversities of the northeastern populations were similar to those of field populations in other countries, but were higher than those of the northwestern populations. Populations from the Northwestern China showed similar haplotype number and haplotype diversity. We conclude that the population genetic background of C. pomonella populations in Northeastern and Northwestern China varies due to different invasion sources and that this should be considered before the application of new pest control tactics.
Keywords: codling moth; genetic diversity; invasion source; mtDNA marker.