Abstract:The objective of the study was to examine the influence of ultraviolet radiation on the offspring of two body\|color biotypes (i.e., red and green) of Sitobion avenae (Fab.), and to elucidate the role of ultraviolet radiation in the body color differentiation of aphids. Under controlled conditions in artificial bioclimatic chambers, adult aphids of red and green biotypes of Sitobion avenae were placed on two wheat varieties (‘Astron’ and ‘Xiaoyan-22’) and treated under 30W lamp of UV\|B for different durations respectively. The impact of UV\|B on development duration (T), weight and mean relative growth rate (MRGR) of the 2nd generation aphids (F2) were subsequently measured. After being exposed to 1h of UV\|B radiation, the development of red biotype of F2 aphids fed on Astron were accelerated significantly, while the development of red and green biotypes on Xiaoyan-22 showed no changes; however, after being exposed to 8h UV\|B radiation all aphids, both on Xiaoyan-22 and Astron displayed reduced development rate. Compared to the control, the reduction of development rate of green biotype were greater than that of the red biotype. The effects of UV\|B radiation on aphids have inherited to F2; Exposure to relatively short duration of UV\|B radiation (1 h) can only accelerate the development rate of red biotype aphids on Astron, while exposure to relatively long time (8 h) of UV\|B radiation can reduce development of both red and green biotypes on Astron and Xiaoyan22, and the green biotype of aphids is more sensitive to UV\|B radiation than the red biotype. The findings from this study suggested that the UV\|B radiation influenced the biology of red and green biotypes of S. avenae differently, which indicated that the UV\|B radiation tolerance is likely to play an important role in aphid body color differentiation and inheritance.