About the Authors

Maryam Kamali

Affiliation Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

Ai Xia

Current address: Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, P. R. China

Affiliation Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

Zhijian Tu

Affiliation Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

Igor V. Sharakhov

igor@vt.edu

Affiliation Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: IVS. Performed the experiments: MK AX ZT IVS. Analyzed the data: MK AX ZT IVS. Wrote the paper: MK ZT IVS.