Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique is economical，fast  and easy to handle. It requires only small amount of material and no prior information about template DNA. This technique have been widely used for many types of insect genetic analyses，including different taxa differentiation，genome mapping，genotype fingerprinting，phylogeny reconstruction，and measuring genetic polymorphisms. However，RAPD also has some disadvantages，especially the majority of its alleles segregated as dominant markers，which could not differentiate homozygotes and heterozygotes, and its repeatability was sensitive to PCR conditions. In order to overcome these disadvantages, RAPD is combined with other techniques such as polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, singlestrand conformation polymorphism（SSCP），denaturing gradient gel ctrophoresis（DGGE） and so on to enhance its sensitivity and reliability. On the other hand, more reliable or codominant markers based on RAPD are also adopted, such as sequence characterized amplified regions (SCAR), microsatellite, etc. This paper reviewed current progress in the modifications and improvements on the RAPD technique.