Abstract: As an alien invasive species in China, Hyphantria cunea is an important international quarantine pest and its distribution is spreading. The supercooling point (SCP) is an important physiological indicator for studying its potential distribution area. In this study, we analyzed the relationships between SCPs and larvae instars, host plants, low temperature acclimation time and geographical population. It was found that the SCP of H. cunea differed with larvae instars (P<0.001). The lowest SCP was found in pupae (-15.91 ℃) and the highest SCP was found in 5th instar (-6.97 ℃); SCP increased with the increase in age of larvae instars. The averaged SCP of H. cunea pupae feeding on the leave of Platanus acerifolia (-16.09 ℃) was significantly lower than that of pupae feeding on the leave of Acer negundo (-14.61 ℃) (P=0.002). There was no significant difference in SCP of non-diapause pupae after acclimating 24, 48 and 72 h at 6 ℃ (P=0.846). Significant differences of SCP were found among 6 geographic populations (Wuyi, Neihuang, Puyang, Dongying, Shouguang and Shenyang). Particularly, the SCP of Dongying samples was the highest (-15.35 ℃) and the SCP of Neihuang was the lowest (-21.39 ℃).

Key words: trace metal contamination, landscape heterogeneity, multi-scale, partial redundancy analysis