ABSTRACT
The critical concerns for agricultural users of insecticides are, as they have been for nearly 100 years, efficacy, economy, and safety. The chapters of this book are an indication that significant new progress is being made in the design of synthetic chemical insecticides to meet these needs. Another form of insect suppression, host plant resistance (HPR), is being developed either to operate alone or, more likely, in concert with other methods integrated in appropriate management systems. HPR is the use of antiherbivory defenses that are innate and integral parts of the physiology of plants. Host plant resistance in crop plants results from the incorporation of genetically regulated factors from resistant genotypes into superior agronomic varieties by traditional plant breeding methods or genetic engineering. Those resistance factors may involve chemical or physical characteristics of the plant that are detrimental to herbivore fitness (antibiotic or antixenotic factors). But resistance may take the form of compensatory growth (tolerance) of plants with no detrimental effect on the herbivores.
