The morphology of the male salivary glands of eighteen species of Panorpidae from China was studied using light microscopy. The results show that the male salivary glands differ markedly both at generic and specific levels. In Neopanorpa, the salivary glands consist of only two simple long secretory tubes extending to the fifth or sixth abdominal segment, whereas in Sinopanorpa, the salivary glands are composed of six extremely elongated secretory tubes. In Panorpa, the salivary glands are quite diverse, comprising two simple short secretory tubes only extending to the prothorax in the P. amurensis group (P. liui and P. jilinensis), six long tubes in the P. centralis group, eight to twelve in the P. diceras group and of a very variable number in the P. davidi group (especially in P. bifasciata and P. subambra). Morphology of the male salivary glands should be included in future studies on the systematics and phylogeny of the Panorpidae. and Na Ma, Shu-Yu Liu, Bao-Zhen Hua.
The relative suitability of three prey organisms, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) eggs, B. tabaci nymphs, and Myzus persicae (Sulzer), to the ladybird Propylea japonica (Thunberg) was evaluated under laboratory conditions. The larvae developed fastest when fed M. persicae, and slowest on B. tabaci eggs. When fed M. persicae, all larvae successfully developed into adult with a growth index (i.e., percent pupation/larval period in days) of 13.16 and development rate of 0.096. The longevity of starving adults was 4.7 ± 0.2 days. In contrast, when fed B. tabaci eggs, all larvae survived to the second instars, 56.7% of which survived to the third instars, 13.3% to the fourth instars; only 6.7% of larvae survived to the pupal stage and the pupae developed into abnormal adults that died shortly. When fed B. tabaci nymphs, all larvae survived and successfully developed into adults with a growth index of 10.71 and development rate of 0.083. The adult body mass was greater when larvae fed M. persicae, compared to adults eclosing from larvae fed B. tabaci nymphs. On the basis of these findings, the order of suitability of three prey organisms for P. japonica is M. persicae > B. tabaci nymph > B. tabaci egg. This is the first record that P. japonica can complete its development when feeding exclusively on whitefly nymphs.