Vip3A RESISTANT SPODOPTERA FRUGIPERDA

1 . A method of evaluating the activity of a compound on a Vip3A-resistant fall armyworm, comprising:

a) exposing one or more Vip3A-resistant fall armyworms to a compound; and

b) determining the activity of the compound on the one or more Vip3A-resistant fall armyworms;

to thereby evaluate if said compound is active on a Vip3A-resistant fall armyworm.

2 . The method of claim 1 further comprising selecting a compound for further development when said compound exhibits toxicity to said Vip3A-resistant fall armyworm.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the compound is an insecticidal protein.

4 . A method for producing a field-derived, artificially selected strain of Vip3A-resistant fall armyworms, the method comprising:

a) collecting a plurality of fall armyworms from a geographic location;

b) allowing the fall armyworms to feed on a diet comprising an effective concentration of Vip3A, sufficient to kill susceptible fall armyworms;

c) selecting one or more of the surviving fall armyworms from step (b);

d) forming a strain of surviving artificially selected fall armyworms that comprise field-derived resistance to Vip3A.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the geographic location is in or proximal to an agricultural field.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the agricultural field comprises corn plants.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the corn plants express a Vip3A protein.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the Vip3A protein is Vip3Aa20.

9 . A method for producing an artificially selected strain of Vip3A-resistant fall armyworms, the method comprising:

a) collecting a plurality of fall armyworms from a geographic location, wherein said plurality of fall armyworms constitute the F0 generation;

b) allowing the field-collected fall armyworms to breed unselectively for one generation, thereby producing an F1 generation which has not been feed a diet comprising a Vip3A protein;

c) determining the sex of the F1 generation adults;

d) selecting for breeding pairs of the F1 generation and allowing the breeding pairs to mate, thereby producing an F2 generation;

e) allowing fall armyworm larvae of the F2 generation to feed on a diet comprising an effective concentration of Vip3A, sufficient to kill susceptible fall armyworms;

f) selecting one or more surviving fall armyworms from step (e); and

g) forming an artificially selected strain of surviving fall armyworms that comprise resistance to Vip3A.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the geographic location is in or proximal to an agricultural field.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the agricultural field comprises corn plants.

12 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising:

e) mating a Vip3A-resistant fall armyworm produced by the method with a fall armyworm that is susceptible to Vip3A, whereby progeny larvae are produced;

allowing the larvae resulting from step (e) to feed on a diet comprising an effective concentration of Vip3A, sufficient to kill susceptible fall armyworms; and

g) analyzing the mortality rates of the progeny from each mating.

13 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising backcrossing progeny larvae of step e) with the Vip3A-resistant fall armyworms to produce a backcrossed progeny.

14 . The method of claim 12 wherein the method further comprises determining the inheritance of resistance of the strain of Vip3A-resistant fall armyworms.

15 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the diet comprising an effective concentration of Vip3A comprises leaf material from maize plants comprising event MIR162.