Allozyme polymorphism and geographic variation in the small brown planthopper:: Laodelphax striatellus (Homoptera: Delphacidae)

The small brown planthopper, Laodelphax striatellus, immigrates annually into Japan over the East China Sea from the Asian mainland. It is not known whether this long-distance dispersal has any effect on the genetic structure of Japanese L. striatellus populations. The dispersal of L. striatellus is suspected to be relevant to the population dynamics of infection with the parasitic bacterium Wolbachia, which causes cytoplasmic incompatibility in L. striatellus. Wolbachia infection has spread within and among Japanese L. striatellus populations due to this cytoplasmic incompatibility. In the present study, the geographic differences among 11 L. striatellus populations from Japan and Taiwan was investigated using allozyme polymorphism. F-ST values on three enzyme loci (GPI, PGM, and AK) indicated a geographically differentiated population structure. Significant differentiation was found even among populations located along the course of the long-distance dispersal. The results indicated that long-range dispersal of L. striatellus does not occur regularly over the main islands of Japan and that it does not have a large effect on the population structure of L. striatellus. This conclusion is in agreement with the geographically variable life history of L. striatellus adapted to local climates. The short-term rice stripe epidemic, which is vectored by L. striatellus, in northwestern Kyushu, Japan, during 1985 and 1986 corresponds to these results. Based on the present findings, short-distance dispersal was considered to drive the spatial spread of Wolbachia infection among L. striatellus populations.