Coleoptera as Pest and Biological Agents in Agricultural and Forest Ecosystems

Dear Colleagues,

Coleoptera insect pests generate serious economic losses on wood exploitations all over the world. Coleoptera as pests are important in agricultural and forest crops. Damage to crops is caused by larval feeding and, occasionally, by adult feeding or oviposition behavior. Larvae of most coleoptera species are borers, feeding on living, dying, dead, or rotten plant stems, branches, or twigs. The greatest number of wood-boring species feed on subcortical tissues—at least initially. Later, they may burrow further into sapwood—and even hardwood—to continue feeding. The insect’s herbaceous feeders usually bore in host stems. The insect’s root feeders may bore in the roots, hollowing out and killing the roots of the host plants, or they may live in the soil and feed on the roots. In particular, in some species, larvae damage fruit; adults cause economic damage to leaves and flowers by feeding and to stems or branches.

We invite experts and researchers in the field to contribute original research articles, reviews, short communications, and opinion pieces about coleoptera insects’ attacks to crops and problems caused in ecosystems. The sustainable management of these insect pests, development and/or application of biological control strategies, and new techniques and traps used for their control will also be considered in this Special Issue. Works on minor horticultural and tropical–subtropical crops are also welcome. Specific topics of interest include direct and indirect damage in crops. Other topics of interest are semiochemicals; volatile organic compounds; pheromones, biopesticides application, and research methods for their control; plant–insect interaction; auxiliary predators for their control; and taxonomic characteristics.

Dr. Álvaro Rodríguez González
Dr. Óscar González-López
Dr. Eric W. Riddick
Guest Editors

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