{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,17]],"date-time":"2026-07-17T05:05:17Z","timestamp":1784264717250,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,13]],"date-time":"2026-07-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1783900800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"the International Atomic Energy Agency Project","award":["CPR5028"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CPR5028"]}]},{"name":"IAEA Coordinated Research Project D41028","award":["26368"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["26368"]}]},{"name":"Hundred\u2019 Level Innovative Talent Foundation of Guizhou Province","award":["GCC[2022]028-2"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["GCC[2022]028-2"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Insects"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Spodoptera litura (Fabricius) is a major agricultural pest, and the establishment of efficient mass-rearing systems is critical for advancing biological control and integrated pest management strategies. In our previous work, evaluation of 17 artificial diets identified an optimised corn-based formulation (F15) that significantly improved larval performance relative to a standard control (CK) diet. However, the metabolic mechanisms underlying these performance differences remain largely unresolved. Here, we employed untargeted metabolomics based on liquid chromatography\u2013tandem mass spectrometry (LC\u2013MS\/MS) to elucidate the biochemical pathways associated with enhanced development in S. litura larvae reared on F15 compared with CK. Larvae fed the F15 diet exhibited a prolonged developmental period (21.49 \u00b1 0.86 vs. 20.13 \u00b1 0.53 days), higher emergence rates (1.20 \u00b1 0.27% vs. 0.85 \u00b1 0.10%), and increased body mass during both early (3.28 \u00b1 0.12 vs. 2.93 \u00b1 0.08 mg) and later instars (77.55 \u00b1 2.30 vs. 73.51 \u00b1 1.17 mg) relative to those reared on the control diet. Metabolomic profiling revealed that the CK diet, characterised by lower levels of the essential fatty acid linoleic acid (LA), was associated with reduced metabolite abundance and weaker enrichment of energy-related metabolic pathways. In contrast, the F15 diet contained substantially higher levels of linoleic acid, which is known to contribute to membrane stability and mitochondrial function. Notably, linoleic acid was consistently enriched in the gut of F15-fed larvae, suggesting a correlative central role in promoting metabolic efficiency, growth, and developmental performance. Collectively, these findings provide mechanistic insight into how dietary composition modulates insect metabolism and highlight the nutritional and physiological advantages of corn-based formulations for large-scale rearing. This study offers a foundational theoretical foundation for optimising artificial diets and supports their application in sustainable pest-management programs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/insects17070725","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]],"date-time":"2026-07-14T02:34:44Z","timestamp":1783996484000},"page":"725","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["An Optimized Corn-Based Artificial Diet Reshapes the Larval Metabolome, Leading to Mixed Improvements in Longevity and Reproductive Traits in Spodoptera litura"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Aning","family":"Fan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Jilin Province Technology Research Center of Biological Control Engineering, Institute of Biological Control, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nipapan","family":"Kanjana","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The National Engineering Laboratory of Crop Stress Resistance, School of Life Sciences, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China"},{"name":"Program of Agriculture, Faculty of Agricultural Production, Maejo University, Chiang Mai 50290, Thailand"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaotong","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jilin Province Technology Research Center of Biological Control Engineering, Institute of Biological Control, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuanfei","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hanqi","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Plant Protection, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang 110866, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4640-8330","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yuyan","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9716-6960","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jianjun","family":"Mao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Junjie","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Jilin Province Technology Research Center of Biological Control Engineering, Institute of Biological Control, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lisheng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Animal Biosafety Risk Prevention and Control (North), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai 200241, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"1512","article-title":"First authentic report of fall armyworm presence in Faisalabad Pakistan","volume":"8","author":"Khan","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. 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