We will study insecticide resistance development in rapeseed beetles (the pollen beetle Meligethes aeneus as well as weevils Ceutorhynchus spp. and flea beetles Phyllotreta spp.), which are major pests of oilseed rape cultivated on several million hectares in Europe. Pyrethroid resistance mediated by cytochrome P450 and target-site mechanism was implicated in the resistance of many of the 350 pollen beetle populations collected between 2006 and 2010 in 13 European countries. In the majority of populations tested the mutation was absent, and only samples from Denmark and Sweden, contained beetles with the resistance mutation, whereas resistance in other European countries were caused by cytochrome P450s (Nauen et al. 2012).
