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Agronomy
Special Issues
Advances in Beneficial Insects Research for Conservation Biological Control
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Advances in Beneficial Insects Research for Conservation Biological Control

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Pest and Disease Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 863

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Susana Pascual

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Plan Protection Department, INIA-CSIC, Carretera de la Coruña, km 7.5, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: conservation biological control; populations of natural enemies and biological control; pest control methods and side effects on natural enemies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Elżbieta Wojciechowicz-Żytko

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Botany, Physiology and Plant Protection, Agricultural University, al. 29-Listopada 54, 31-425 Kraków, Poland
Interests: predatory insects; parasitoids; biological control; integrated pest management; agriculture entomology
Dr. Katarzyna Golan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Plant Protection, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Leszczyńskiego 7, 20-069 Lublin, Poland
Interests: plant protection; arthropod-plant interactions; scale insects
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Pest feeding leads to a reduction in the quantity and quality of crops depending on the crop and the causing agent. Pesticides have been intensively used to prevent crop losses, but their use leads to environmental pollution, reduction in biodiversity, higher mortality, or lower fecundity of beneficial insects. Therefore, people are looking for efficient and affordable methods as alternatives to chemical control. Conservation and biological control are essential to increasing environmental biodiversity in urban and agricultural landscapes in order to provide places and resources that protect and enhance natural enemies such as parasitoids and predators for pest control in crop systems.

This Special Issue invites the submission of original research articles and reviews concerning the use of natural enemies in pest control; population dynamics, diversity, abundance, trophic relationships, and increasing the biodiversity of beneficial insects.

Dr. Susana Pascual
Dr. Elżbieta Wojciechowicz-Żytko
Dr. Katarzyna Golan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • predators
  • parasitoids
  • biological control
  • biodiversity of beneficial fauna
  • ecosystem services

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 739 KiB  
Article
Advancing Research on Overlooked Invertebrates in Biological Control: A Case Study of Local Hoverflies and Wolf Spiders
by Rosemary A. Knapp, Robert McDougall and Paul A. Umina
Agronomy 2025, 15(5), 1203; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15051203 - 16 May 2025
Viewed by 86
Abstract
Preserving natural enemies in agricultural landscapes is a cornerstone of biological pest control, and avoiding insecticides and miticides that harm non-target species is a key strategy to support naturally occurring populations in the field. Current research on the impacts of these chemicals is [...] Read more.
Preserving natural enemies in agricultural landscapes is a cornerstone of biological pest control, and avoiding insecticides and miticides that harm non-target species is a key strategy to support naturally occurring populations in the field. Current research on the impacts of these chemicals is often biased toward a small number of commercially cultured species, leaving important knowledge gaps for those groups that naturally occur at local scales. Hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) and wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae), both globally important invertebrates in agricultural systems, have been under-researched due to challenges in the field collection and laboratory cultivation of local species. This study helps to address these gaps by evaluating the effects of several widely used chemicals on Australian hoverflies (Melangyna sp.) and wolf spiders (Venatrix spp.) as case study species, with detailed descriptions of laboratory rearing and testing methodologies. The results from standardised chemical toxicity testing showed Venatrix spp. were relatively tolerant to various chemicals, highlighting their potential role in Integrated pest management (IPM) strategies that combine chemical and biological control methods. In contrast, Melangyna sp. was sensitive to numerous chemicals tested, including some that are widely regarded as safe for non-target species. These findings emphasise the need to expand research on underrepresented natural enemy groups to effectively support biological control efforts at local scales. Specifically, the methodologies developed in this study can be adapted to facilitate further research on locally occurring hoverfly and spider species in other regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Beneficial Insects Research for Conservation Biological Control)
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18 pages, 2010 KiB  
Article
Urban Green Space as a Reservoir of Predatory Syrphids (Diptera, Syrphidae) for Aphid Control in Cities
by Elżbieta Wojciechowicz-Żytko and Maja Dobińska-Graczyk
Agronomy 2025, 15(4), 953; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15040953 - 14 Apr 2025
Viewed by 277
Abstract
The occurrence of predatory Syrphidae (hoverflies) in green areas of cities and their role as biological control agents is determined in this work. During the study, 751 adults belonging to 21 species were captured in Moericke’s traps and with sweep nets, and 286 [...] Read more.
The occurrence of predatory Syrphidae (hoverflies) in green areas of cities and their role as biological control agents is determined in this work. During the study, 751 adults belonging to 21 species were captured in Moericke’s traps and with sweep nets, and 286 larvae from 10 species were reared from aphid colonies. In both cases, the dominants were Episyrphus balteatus (Deg.) Sphaerophoria scripta (L.), and Syrphus vitripennis Meig. (L.) It can be assumed that hoverflies were attracted by flowering plants and then developed in aphid colonies on trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, reducing the aphid population. The largest number of hoverflies was caught in the plant-rich and well-developed Wolski Forest, whose conditions were beneficial for their reproduction and survival. Studies on the voracity of hoverflies have shown that the larvae of dominant species ate from 243 to 498 individuals of Aphis fabae Scop. and from 272 to 468 specimens of Myzus cerasi (Fabr.); the efficiency depended on the syrphid and aphid species as well as the instar stage of the syrphid larva. The results indicate that urban green spaces are vital refugia for insect biodiversity and could be a reservoir of beneficial insects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Beneficial Insects Research for Conservation Biological Control)
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