Ecdysteroid agonists nonsteroidal

Diacylhydrazine insecticides (tebufenozide, methoxyfenozide, halofenozide, and chroma-fenozide) act as nonsteroidal ecdysone agonists. They bind to specific ecdysteroid receptorbinding proteins, interrupting the normal sequence of events. Consequently, they induce an incomplete precocious molt, resulting in the mortality of the larva. 

For the last two decades, in order to develop insecticides with selective toxicity, efforts to identify mimics (agonists) of 20-hydroxyecdysone, the insect molting hormone, have always led to the use of ecdysteroids or closely related steroidal analogs which are not commercially cost-effective. Recently, a new class of insect growth regulators, the 1,2-diacyl-l-alkylhydrazines, has been discovered and shown to be the first nonsteroidal agonists of 20-hydroxyecdysone. 

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