Interspecific comparison reveals disparities in insecticide adaptive evolutionary capacity in insect pests

Abstract BACKGROUND Insecticide resistance constitutes a prominent case of adaptive evolution in agricultural pests, yet the ecological and genetic drivers underlying interspecific divergence remain unclear. Rice planthoppers, Nilaparvata lugens Stål (BPH) and Sogatella furcifera Horvath (WBPH), are closely related species sharing similar ecological niches and management practices. This study aimed to compare their evolutionary capacity for insecticide resistance by integrating long‐term field monitoring with controlled laboratory selection experiments. RESULTS Resistance monitoring in 2024 indicated that BPH populations generally showed higher resistance than WBPH across most insecticides, with resistance to four neonicotinoids being 8.6‐ to 160.2‐fold greater in BPH. Further, integration of 4090 bioassays from 1996 to 2024 reconstructed multi‐phase sigmoidal resistance trajectories, showing that BPH evolved more rapidly and reached higher resistance ceilings than WBPH. Consistent with these field patterns, laboratory selection with thiamethoxam, triflumezopyrim and nitenpyram revealed stronger adaptive capacity in BPH, with realized heritability ( h 2 ) values of 0.226–0.577 compared with 0.036–0.174 in WBPH. Finally, integration of cross‐resistance and mechanistic studies demonstrated that BPH possesses extensive cross‐resistance networks mediated by diversified detoxification pathways, whereas WBPH exhibited limited cross‐resistance. CONCLUSION Our findings show that insecticide resistance evolution is species‐specific, with BPH displaying faster development, higher resistance ceilings and broader cross‐resistance than WBPH. These differences underscore the need to include species‐level divergence in resistance risk assessment. In practice, BPH management should emphasize insecticide rotation to reduce cross‐resistance. For WBPH, when occurring alone, reduced use may help avoid excessive selection pressure and environmental impact, thereby supporting sustainable pest control. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.