The Asian corn borer(ACB),Ostrinia furnacalis(Guenée),is a destructive pest insect of cultivated corn crops,for which antennal-expressed receptors are important to detect olfactory cues for mate attraction and oviposition.Non-normalized male and female O.furnacalis antennal cDNA libraries were sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq 2000 and assembled into a reference transcriptome.Functional gene annotations identified putative olfactory-related genes: 56 odorant receptors(ORs),23 odorant binding proteins(OBPs),10 CSPs,2 sensory neutron membrane proteins SNMPs,and 13 ionotropic receptors(IRs).Quantitative real-time RT-PCR analyses indicated male antennae-specific expression of OfurOR3,4,6,7,8,11,12,13 and 14 transcripts,whereas OfurOR17 and 18 were specially expressed in female antennae.RNA-seq estimates of gene expression respectively showed up-and down-regulation of 79 and 30 genes in female compared to male antennae,which included 8 up-regulated ORs in female and 1 PBP gene in male antennae.Sex-specific gene expression described here provides important insight in gene functionalization,and provides candidate genes putatively involved in environmental perception,host plant attraction,and mate recognition.