Climate change and global warming are of great concern to agriculture worldwide and are among the most discussed issues in today’s society. Climate parameters such as increased temperatures, rising atmospheric CO2 levels, and changing precipitation p...
The appearance of insects in music videos was examined. The most common taxa observed were Lepidoptera, then Hymenoptera, with Coleoptera, Araneae, Diptera, and Orthoptera essentially tied for third most represented. Insect music videos have increase...
Pollination plays a significant role in the agriculture sector and serves as a basic pillar for crop production. Plants depend on vectors to move pollen, which can include water, wind, and animal pollinators like bats, moths, hoverflies, birds, bees,...
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a leading complement and alternative to synthetic pesticides and a form of sustainable intensification with particular importance for tropical smallholders. Global pesticide use has grown over the past 20 years to...
Abstract: A number of abiotic and biotic factors are known to regulate arthropod attraction, colonization, and utilization of decomposing vertebrate remains. Such information is critical when assessing arthropod evidence associated with said remains...
The selective application of insecticides is one of the cornerstones of integrated pest management (IPM) and management strategies for pest resistance to insecticides. The present work provides a comprehensive overview of the traditional and new meth...
Chitin is a critical component of both the exoskeleton and internal structures of insects, which can protect insects from mechanical damage, dehydration and pathogen infection, and plays a significant role in the molting process. Chitin deacetylases...
The rapidly growing population has increased demand for protein quantities and, following a shortage of plant-based feed protein sources and the prohibition of animal-based feed protein, has forced the search for new sources of protein. Therefore, hu...
Garments treated with chemical insecticides are commonly used to prevent mosquito bites. Resistance to insecticides, however, is threatening the efficacy of this technology, and people are increasingly concerned about the potential health impacts of...
The temperature of the environment is one of the most important abiotic factors affecting the life of insects. As poikilotherms, their body temperature is not constant, and they rely on various strategies to minimize the risk of thermal stress. They...
The use of synthetic insecticides has been a solution to reduce mosquito-borne disease transmission for decades. Currently, no single intervention is sufficient to reduce the global disease burden caused by mosquitoes. Problems associated with extens...
Mosquitoes represent the major arthropod vectors of human disease worldwide transmitting malaria, lymphatic filariasis, and arboviruses such as dengue virus and Zika virus. Unfortunately, no treatment (in the form of vaccines or drugs) is available f...
The wastes generated during the post-harvest handling of various agricultural commodities is rather under-utlilized. The peels of citrus fruits are often discarded as waste. Citrus peels are rich in essential oils and exhibit toxicity towards various...
The greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella Linnaeus, is a ubiquitous pest of the honeybee, Apis mellifera Linnaeus, and Apis cerana Fabricius. The greater wax moth larvae burrow into the edge of unsealed cells with pollen, bee brood, and honey through...
Beneficial arthropods provide many important ecosystem services. In agroecosystems, pollination and control of crop pests provide benefits worth billions of dollars annually. Effective sampling and monitoring of these beneficial arthropods is essenti...
Infections mediated by broad host range entomopathogenic fungi represent seminal observations that led to one of the first germ theories of disease and are a classic example of a co-evolutionary arms race between a pathogen and target hosts. These fu...
The biological concept of stress originated in mammals, where a “General Adaptation Syndrome” describes a set of common integrated physiological responses to diverse noxious agents. Physiological mechanisms of stress in mammals have been extensively...
Mosquitoes act as vectors of pathogens that cause most life-threatening diseases, such as malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya, Yellow fever, Zika, West Nile, Lymphatic filariasis, etc. To reduce the transmission of these mosquito-borne diseases in humans, s...
The increased urbanization of a growing global population makes imperative the development of sustainable integrated pest management (IPM) strategies for urban pest control. This emphasizes pests that are closely associated with the health and wellbe...
A majority of humans spend their waking hours surrounded by insects, so it should be no surprise that insects also appear in humans’ dreams as we sleep. Dreaming about insects has a peculiar history, marked by our desire to explain a dream’s signific...
Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are among the most economically important pest species in the world, attacking a wide range of fruits and fleshy vegetables throughout tropical and sub-tropical areas. These species are such devastating crop pests t...
Coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei (Ferrari), CBB) has invaded nearly every coffee-producing country in the world, and it is commonly recognized as the most damaging insect pest of coffee. While research has been conducted on this pest in indivi...
This work is intended as a general and concise overview of Ephemeroptera biology, diversity, and services provided to humans and other parts of our global array of freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. The Ephemeroptera, or mayflies, are a small but...
The coconut scale insect, Aspidiotus rigidus Reyne, caused a major pest outbreak in coconut plantations and stands in the Southern Tagalog region of Luzon Island in the Philippines between 2010 and 2015. To determine if parasitism by Comperiella cala...
Arboviral mosquito vectors are key targets for the surveillance and control of vector-borne diseases worldwide. In recent years, changes to the global distributions of these species have been a major research focus, aimed at predicting outbreaks of a...
The cat flea Ctenocephalides felis felis (Bouché) is the most important ectoparasite of domestic cats and dogs worldwide. It has been two decades since the last comprehensive review concerning the biology and ecology of C. f. felis and its management...
Though they are relatively understudied, non-native bees are ubiquitous and have enormous potential economic and environmental impacts. These impacts may be positive or negative, and are often unquantified. In this manuscript, I review literature on...
Beekeepers providing pollination services for California almond orchards have reported observing dead or malformed brood during and immediately after almond bloom—effects that they attribute to pesticide exposure. The objective of this study wa...
Nowadays, edible insects are considered an outstanding source of nutrients, primarily because they contain high-quality protein, amino acids, and vitamins. Insects are considered a promising alternative protein source towards alleviating future globa...
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are constantly dealing with threats from pathogens, pests, pesticides and poor nutrition. It is critically important to understand how honey bees’ natural immune responses (individual immunity) and collective behavioral de...
Whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), consists of genetically diverse species known to cause significant destruction in several crops around the world. Nymphs and adults of B. tabaci cause damage to plants during feeding, and...
Background: The destructive insect pest Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a polyphagous species targeting many economically important plants. The extensive and arbitrary use of insecticides has resulted in the build-up of insecti...
House flies are the most prevalent synanthropic pest worldwide. Although they seldom reproduce in homes, they invade buildings, cause annoyance, and carry pathogens. Urban pest management personnel are limited in their ability to locate and manage la...
In the past centuries, viruses have benefited from globalization to spread across the globe, infecting new host species and populations. A growing number of viruses have been documented in the western honey bee, Apis mellifera. Several of these contr...
Ixodes ricinus (Acari: Ixodidae) ticks infest humans in Europe most frequently. This report describes an interesting case of a persistent inflammatory skin reaction developed in a patient after the incomplete removal of an I. ricinus female tick. A 4...
The relationship between insects and humans throughout history has always been complex and multifaceted. Insects are both a source of fascination and fear for humans and have played important roles in human culture, economy, and health. Nowadays, the...
Urbanization is a major anthropogenic driver of decline for ecologically and economically important taxa including bees. Despite their generally negative impact on pollinators, cities can display a surprising degree of biodiversity compared to other...
The European cherry fruit fly, Rhagoletis cerasi (L.) (Diptera: Tephritidae), is a highly destructive pest. The low tolerance for damaged fruit requires preventive insecticide treatments for a marketable crop. The phase-out of old insecticides threat...
Parasites can dramatically reduce the fitness of their hosts, and natural selection should favor defense mechanisms that can protect hosts against disease. Much work has focused on understanding genetic and physiological immunity against parasites, b...
Developing effective alternative approaches for disinfesting bed bugs from residential spaces requires a balance between obtaining complete insect mortality, while minimizing costs and energy consumption. One method of disinfestation is the applicati...
Busseola fusca (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is an important pest of maize and sorghum in sub-Saharan Africa. One century after its first description by Fuller in 1901, inaccurate information based on earlier reports are still propagated on its distributi...
Western honey bees, Apis mellifera, live in highly eusocial colonies that are each typically headed by a single queen. The queen is the sole reproductive female in a healthy colony, and because long-term colony survival depends on her ability to prod...
This study examined the impact of diet protein and carbohydrate percentages as well as moisture on the immature development, survivorship, and resulting adult longevity and egg production of the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens (L.) (Diptera: Str...
Central America is a unique geographical region that connects North and South America, enclosed by the Caribbean Sea to the East, and the Pacific Ocean to the West. This region, encompassing Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panam...
The sex-determining systems of arthropods are surprisingly diverse. Some species have male or female heterogametic sex chromosomes while other species do not have sex chromosomes. Most species are diploids but some species, including wasps, ants, thr...
Ectosymbioses among bark beetles (Curculionidae, Scolytinae) and fungi (primarily ophiostomatoid Ascomycetes) are widespread and diverse. Associations range from mutualistic to commensal, and from facultative to obligate. Some fungi are highly specif...
This article describes the importance of rearing insects, whether on a small scale for research or a large scale for mass rearing, for use in biological control (BC) programs with macro-organisms. These inter- or multidisciplinary research programs a...
The dramatic increase in soil degradation in the last few decades has led to the need to identify methods to define not only soil quality but also, in a holistic approach, soil health. In the past twenty years, indices based on living communities hav...
Brevibacillus laterosporus, a bacterium characterized by the production of a unique canoe-shaped lamellar body attached to one side of the spore, is a natural inhabitant of water, soil and insects. Its biopesticidal potential has been reported agains...
Forensic entomology is a branch of forensic science that incorporates insects as a part of solving crime. Insect-based evidence recovered at a crime scene can be used to estimate the minimum postmortem interval, determine if a carcass/corpse has been...
