Diapause is a programmed developmental arrest that allows insects to survive harsh environmental conditions. The diapause state has been linked to the insulin signaling pathway. Insulin signaling has been associated with many physiological processes including aging. It is a working hypothesis that the diapause and aging programs have a common set of gene expression pathways via insulin signaling. Analysis of a heterologous microarray indicated that two genes involved in the insulin pathway were down regulated during diapause. Both of these genes, Pi3K68d and Pde6, along with the Insulin receptor (InR) were targets for further investigation. Putative gene products have been isolated, cloned, and sequenced. RNA interference experimentation was conducted to characterize the role of the putative InR gene products obtained.