Search Results (712)

Rice paddies function as temporary wetlands that provide important habitats for diverse aquatic macroinvertebrates. However, the relative roles of regional climatic conditions and invasive species in shaping macroinvertebrate communities remain insufficiently understood. This study investigated the effects of regional temperature variation and the invasive apple snail Pomacea canaliculata on aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in rice paddies across South Korea. Aquatic macroinvertebrates were surveyed annually from 2021 to 2024 in five regions distributed along a latitudinal gradient, and additional local-scale comparisons were conducted between rice paddies with and without P. canaliculata. A total of 42 species comprising 24,524 individuals were recorded. Community composition differed significantly among regions and variation partitioning indicated that regional temperature explained 17.5% of the community variation in paddies containing P. canaliculata, whereas the snail explained 2.3%. Several dominant aquatic insect species exhibited distinct temperature-associated distribution patterns, with Rhantus suturalis and Hydrochara affinis showing negative relationships with temperature and Sternolophus rufipes showing a positive relationship. In contrast, P. canaliculata had little influence on aquatic insects but reduced overall macroinvertebrate diversity through its negative effects on native gastropod assemblages. These findings demonstrate that regional temperature and P. canaliculata influence rice-paddy macroinvertebrate communities through different ecological pathways. Regional temperature primarily affects the distribution of several dominant aquatic insect species, whereas P. canaliculata alters community diversity by reducing native gastropod populations. This study provides ecological evidence for predicting the combined impacts of climate warming and biological invasion on rice-paddy ecosystems. Full article

Numerosity perception is an evolutionarily conserved ability observed across diverse taxa, from insects and fish to birds and primates. Unlike traditional visual categories, numerosity possesses an intrinsic metric structure, making it well suited for quantitatively investigating how categorical representations emerge along the visual hierarchy. While numerical representations are well characterized in high-level associative areas of non-human primates and avian species, neuronal processing of numerosity in upstream regions remains largely unexplored. To address this gap, we recorded single-unit activity in the pigeon entopallium during a delayed match-to-numerosity task. We found a subset of neurons that encoded numerosity independently of the non-numerical feature controlled in the corresponding recording session, exhibiting quasi-monotonic increasing (QMI) or decreasing (QMD) response profiles. Compared with QMI neurons, QMD neurons exhibited a markedly later coding window and stronger category discriminability. Moreover, in both neuronal populations, the normalized response functions and category discriminability were better described by compressed numerosity scales than by a linear scale, with the logarithmic scale showing a modest overall advantage. These findings help refine current theoretical frameworks for how numerosity information is extracted and represented along the avian visual processing hierarchy, providing a comparative basis for cross-species research. Full article

Early adult life represents a critical developmental window during which insects undergo profound physiological reorganization. Despite the economic importance of the yellow mealworm, Tenebrio molitor L., this transition remains poorly characterized/understood. This study provides an integrated characterization of the energetic, cuticular and immunological remodelling that occurs during the first week post-emergence, a critical developmental window with important implications for experimental standardization and mass-rearing optimization. Body mass, Scaled Mass Index (SMI), and cuticular tanning trajectories were monitored at 0, 1, 5, and 7 days, along with cellular (tsotal haemocyte count, THC) and humoral (phenoloxidase activity, PO) immunocompetence at 2 and 7 days in both sexes. Newly emerged adults underwent an energetically demanding early phase characterized by significant proportional mass loss, followed by stabilization and improved SMI by day 7. In parallel, THC increased more than twofold, while the humoral defences remained stable. Cuticle melanization followed a synchronized age-dependent trajectory in both sexes, reaching structural stabilization by the end of the first week. Correlation analysis revealed sex-specific patterns of resource allocation. Females showed a positive association between initial body condition and mature PO activity. Conversely, males exhibited a negative trend between cuticle tanning effort and PO activity, suggesting a clear competition for shared physiological resources. Overall, our findings identify early adulthood as a phase of coordinated physiological remodelling, during which energetic reorganization, cuticle maturation, and cellular immune expansion are synchronized to establish adult functional competence. Full article

Hemodialysis (HD) remains the most widely adopted renal replacement therapy for patients with end-stage kidney disease; however, its delivery entails a substantial environmental burden due to high water and energy consumption and extensive reliance on single-use synthetic polymeric membranes. As the global prevalence of chronic kidney disease increases, the ecological footprint of dialysis systems has become a critical challenge for sustainable healthcare. Conventional HD membranes, based on petroleum-derived polymers, provide controlled permeability but are inherently non-renewable, non-biodegradable, and susceptible to fouling and bio-incompatibility, underscoring the need for alternative, more sustainable materials. Chitosan has emerged as a promising biopolymer owing to its biodegradability, intrinsic antimicrobial activity, chemical versatility, and favorable hemocompatibility. This review presents a comprehensive analysis of chitosan-based hybrid membranes for HD, with emphasis on sustainability-driven material innovation. The structural chemistry and functional properties of chitosan are discussed in relation to molecular weight, degree of deacetylation, and supramolecular organization, followed by a comparative assessment of chitosan derived from crustacean, insect, fungal, and cephalopod sources. Attention is given to fungal chitosan as a naturally deacetylated, high-purity, and reproducible biomaterial aligned with circular bioeconomy principles. Eco-innovative extraction and purification strategies, including enzymatic and low-energy processes, are critically examined alongside membrane fabrication approaches such as polymer blending, electrospinning of hollow fibers, and functionalization strategies aimed at improving hemocompatibility, antimicrobial performance, and fouling resistance. Key challenges related to membrane reuse, scale-up, regulatory compliance, and clinical translation are also addressed. Overall, this review highlights fungal-derived chitosan as a sustainable platform for next-generation HD membranes. Full article

The genus Vagococcus comprises Gram-positive bacteria with a broad ecological distribution, yet its diversity and potential links between animal and human habitats remain underexplored. Here, we report two novel fly-associated strains, CY52-2^T and CY62-2, isolated from a retail market in Beijing, China. Polyphasic taxonomic analyses demonstrated that they represent a novel species, for which we propose the name Vagococcus changpingensis sp. nov. Large-scale mining of 805 public metagenomes identified two human gut-derived genomes that share > 99.3% ANI with V. changpingensis, extending the known distribution of this species from insects to the human gastrointestinal tract at the genomic level. Pangenome analysis revealed an open pangenome and uncovered niche-specific gene sets. These findings highlight the power of targeted metagenomics to reveal the potential ecological breadth of newly described species and provide a genomic framework for future investigations of the genus Vagococcus. Full article

Habitat loss and deforestation are among the main drivers of biodiversity decline in tropical ecosystems, yet their effects on developmental stability remain poorly understood in many insect groups. Orchid bees (Apidae: Euglossini) have been proposed as potential bioindicators of environmental quality due to their close association with forested habitats and sensitivity to habitat disturbance. Here, we evaluated the relationship between forest cover, wing morphology, and developmental stability in the orchid bee Euglossa imperialis across five protected areas of Panama exhibiting different levels of deforestation. A total of 290 individuals were analyzed using geometric morphometrics and fluctuating asymmetry (FA) of the forewing. Morphological variation was assessed through Principal Component and Canonical Variate Analyses, whereas developmental instability was quantified using Procrustes ANOVA and FA scores. Wing shape showed moderate differentiation among sites, with La Tronosa, the most deforested protected area, exhibiting the greatest morphological divergence. In contrast, FA displayed a clear association with habitat degradation. La Tronosa presented the highest levels of developmental instability, and generalized linear models revealed a significant positive relationship between deforestation and FA at both local and landscape scales, with landscape-level deforestation showing the strongest effect. Our results indicate that developmental instability is more sensitive than overall wing morphology for detecting the biological consequences of habitat alteration. These findings support the use of fluctuating asymmetry as an early indicator of environmental degradation and provide new evidence for the value of orchid bees as bioindicators in tropical ecosystems. Full article

Insect herbivores often exhibit host preference and feeding differentiation underpinning fine-scale niche partitioning, yet their linkage to larval performance remains poorly understood. On the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, two sympatric leaf beetles, Chrysomela vigintipunctata alticola (CV) and Phratora vitellinae (PV) (both Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), co-occur on two willow species occupying distinct microhabitats: CV predominantly uses abundant Salix atopantha (SW), while PV specializes on rare Salix wangiana var. tibetica (LW) (both Malpighiales: Salicaceae). To disentangle intrinsic feeding response from natal-host induction, we combined dual-choice feeding bioassays with controlled natal-host rearing experiments using first-instar larvae originating from both hosts, and evaluated fitness consequences in terms of morphology and instar duration. PV larvae exhibited a consistent preference for LW, coupled with wider head capsules. In contrast, CV larvae showed no intrinsic preference; specifically, those from SW remained non-selective, while those from LW developed a delayed preference. CV larvae developed faster on nitrogen-rich SW, whereas LW contained higher salicylate esters. These results indicate that PV prioritizes growth and chemical defensive sequestration on LW, whereas CV prioritizes rapid development by utilizing the nutrient-rich SW. Our results reveal distinct resource-use patterns and life-history strategies that facilitate local co-occurrence of the two leaf beetles within the alpine meadow ecosystem. Full article

Microbial communities associated with insect larvae play key roles in host nutrition, protection against pathogens, immune modulation, and represent a source of biotechnologically relevant traits. In Alphitobius diaperinus, a major poultry pest, the gut microbiota has been mainly studied at the community level, providing limited insight into the potential roles of individual microorganisms. Here, we characterized the aerobically culturable fraction of the larval gut microbiota derived from a single pooled homogenate of fifteen larvae under stable laboratory rearing conditions—an approach that uniquely enables strain-level genomic resolution, functional experimentation, and biotechnological exploitation. Ten bacterial strains and two yeasts were initially isolated; eight bacterial isolates were identical, revealing the most frequently recovered cultivable bacterial morphotype. We provide high-quality draft genomes for five members of the A. diaperinus cultivable gut microbiota—Enterobacter hormaechei subsp. xiangfangensis strain INTA AN1-1, Staphylococcus hominis subsp. novobiosepticus strain INTA AC1-4, Staphylococcus succinus subsp. succinus strain INTA AC1-8, Hyphopichia burtonii strain INTA AB1-1, and Debaryomyces fabryi strain INTA AB1-4—establishing a genome-resolved reference framework validated through a polyphasic approach. Genome-scale annotation enabled us to predict the metabolic potential and hypothesize the functional capabilities among cultivable members, providing a foundation for future studies on this economically relevant pest. Full article

The white peach scale, Pseudaulacaspis pentagona (Targioni-Tozzetti) (Hemiptera: Diaspididae), is a highly polyphagous insect pest of global phytosanitary relevance affecting fruit trees, perennial crops, and ornamental plants in temperate and subtropical regions. Its invasive success is largely driven by high thermal tolerance, a wide host range, and strong survival capacity under postharvest handling and cold-chain storage, which greatly enhances its potential for long-distance dispersal through international trade of fresh fruit and plant material. A systematic review and meta-synthesis of 105 scientific studies published between 1958 and 2026 identified key research areas, including geographic distribution and invasion pathways, host plants and varietal susceptibility, temperature-dependent life history, agricultural impact and quarantine risk, chemical and biological control strategies, and the development of phenology-based monitoring and prediction tools using thermal models and pheromones. Although recent official reports do not confirm the presence of P. pentagona in Ecuador, climate suitability modeling and evidence of long-term survival during cold storage indicate a high risk of introduction and establishment, particularly in inter-Andean valleys. Consequently, preventive phytosanitary surveillance and integrated pest management strategies tailored to Ecuadorian Andean fruit production are proposed, emphasizing phenological monitoring, nursery and agro-urban inspections, and the conservation of natural enemies as a foundation for sustainable management of this emerging pest. Full article

Rice is a staple food for more than half of the global population, but its production is threatened by insect pests such as planthoppers, stem borers, leafhoppers, and defoliators. The widespread use of chemical pesticides has raised concerns regarding environmental contamination, pest resistance, and negative effects on beneficial arthropods. This review examines the role of biological control and habitat management in sustainable rice pest management. It highlights the diversity and ecological roles of natural enemies, including parasitoid wasps, mirid bugs, ladybird beetles, and spiders, which help suppress pest populations in rice ecosystems. Key habitat management approaches, such as conservation biological control, ecological engineering, banker plant systems, flower strips, and the preservation of non-crop habitats, are discussed for their capacity to enhance the abundance and effectiveness of natural enemies. The review also considers integrating these approaches into IPM programs to reduce reliance on pesticides while maintaining crop productivity. Evidence from rice-growing regions demonstrates the effectiveness of habitat-based strategies in improving pest suppression and strengthening ecosystem resilience. However, challenges related to landscape complexity, farmer adoption, long-term implementation, and the need for a clear roadmap for future landscape-scale entomological research remain. Future research should focus on optimizing habitat management practices and integrating ecological approaches with modern agricultural technologies to support sustainable rice production. Full article

The house cricket (Acheta domesticus) is among the edible insect species authorized under the European Union novel food framework and is increasingly explored as a food ingredient. This review synthesizes current evidence on its nutritional composition, techno-functional properties, safety, sustainability, and application potential for human consumption. A. domesticus powder is a nutrient-dense ingredient, with reported protein contents ranging from 57.4 to 76.19 g/100 g dry material, together with a relevant amino acid profile, unsaturated lipid fraction, chitin-associated fiber, and selected minerals and vitamins. Its techno-functional profile, including water absorption capacity around 175%, oil absorption capacity around 140%, and emulsifying capacity around 77.7%, supports applications in bakery products, snacks, pasta, meat analogs, and protein-enriched foods. From a sustainability perspective, reported feed conversion ratios around 1.5–1.9 and controlled indoor rearing strengthen its relevance for scalable production, although outcomes depend on substrate choice, energy inputs, production scale, and processing conditions. Safety issues, especially allergenicity, cross-reactivity, microbial control, and contaminant monitoring, remain central to industrial use. Overall, A. domesticus powder has emerged and should be regarded as a nutritionally valuable, technologically versatile and promising functional ingredient for sustainable food innovation. Full article

To address the challenges of small pest target sizes, dense distributions, strong background interference, and missed detection of small objects in insect pest monitoring lamp images, this study proposes YOLO11-MSC, a lightweight agricultural pest detection model based on an improved YOLO11. First, an Object-Centric Adaptive Slicing (OCAS) strategy is designed to construct the Insect35_OCAS dataset, which increases the relative proportion of small pest targets in the input images while reducing redundant background interference. Second, the Multi-path Nonlinear Star Aggregation (MNS) module and the C2-based Improved Bi-Level Routing Attention (C2iBRA) module are introduced to enhance fine-grained feature extraction for multi-scale pest targets and improve background suppression in complex scenes. Finally, a Semantic-Guided Adaptive Slicing (SGAS) inference strategy is developed to transfer the sliced-image training model to full-image inference on original high-resolution insect pest monitoring lamp images. Experimental results show that YOLO11-MSC achieves an mAP@0.5, Precision, and Recall of 95.2%, 91.8%, and 93.0% on the Insect35_OCAS dataset, respectively, improving the baseline YOLO11n by 1.3, 1.0, and 1.2 percentage points. The model contains only 3.4 M parameters and requires 7.8 Giga Floating-Point Operations (GFLOPs). When combined with SGAS, YOLO11-MSC achieves an mAP@0.5, Precision, and Recall of 86.4%, 81.2%, and 90.1% on the original full-image dataset, respectively. These results demonstrate that the proposed method effectively improves the detection accuracy of small pests and the full-image inference capability in complex insect pest monitoring lamp scenarios while maintaining low model complexity, providing technical support for intelligent agricultural pest monitoring and precision control. Full article

Vachellia farnesiana is an important shrub in arid and semi-arid ecosystems because it provides resources for diverse insect communities. However, the factors influencing insect assemblages associated with this species under contrasting habitat conditions remain poorly understood. This study evaluated the diversity, composition, and functional groups of insects associated with flowering V. farnesiana at two sites with contrasting tree spatial configurations in Mapimí, Durango, Mexico. Taxonomic diversity was assessed using Hill numbers and sampling coverage, whereas community composition was analyzed using generalized linear latent variable models (GLLVM) and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). A total of 1461 insects belonging to 6 orders and 33 families were recorded. Although the total abundance was similar between sites, the diversity, community composition, and functional structure differed. Site S1 showed higher richness and diversity (q0 = 33, q1 = 7.62, q2 = 3.85) than S2 (q0 = 16, q1 = 4.23, q2 = 2.87). S1 also supported more parasitoids, predators, and saprophytes, whereas S2 was dominated by phytophagous insects, mainly Aleyrodidae and Thripidae. Sampling coverage was high (S1 = 0.986; S2 = 0.999), indicating adequate representation of both communities. GLLVM detected significant differences in family composition and abundance after accounting for temperature and relative humidity, and NMDS showed partial separation between sites. These findings indicate that habitat characteristics are associated with variation in insect communities linked to V. farnesiana, highlighting its importance as a resource supporting multiple insect functional groups in arid ecosystems. Full article

To feed a growing population, humanity will need to see an increased global agricultural output in crop production. One key strategy for achieving this goal is to reduce herbivory by insect pests, which is one of the leading causes of crop loss. Although there have been many strategies for combating insect herbivores, biological control may be the most sustainable in the long term. Birds in particular are potentially powerful biocontrol agents, but how avian predation varies within individual agricultural settings remains largely unknown. Here, we analyzed temporal and spatial variations in putative avian predation potential on insect pests in a small-scale agricultural setting. Our results show that the spatial distribution of predation potential is nearly uniform across a small field, indicating that birds with their vagility may be particularly well suited for applying constant, uniform coverage, at least across smaller landscapes. We also found that predation potential by birds varied significantly between seasons, with the fall showing the highest rate of predation. We discuss the applications of our findings for further studies investigating the biocontrol potential of natural bird populations and for leveraging such avian predation to help improve food production systems. Full article

Spodoptera litura (Fabricius) is a major agricultural pest, and the establishment of efficient mass-rearing systems is critical for advancing biological control and integrated pest management strategies. In our previous work, evaluation of 17 artificial diets identified an optimised corn-based formulation (F15) that significantly improved larval performance relative to a standard control (CK) diet. However, the metabolic mechanisms underlying these performance differences remain largely unresolved. Here, we employed untargeted metabolomics based on liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) to elucidate the biochemical pathways associated with enhanced development in S. litura larvae reared on F15 compared with CK. Larvae fed the F15 diet exhibited a prolonged developmental period (21.49 ± 0.86 vs. 20.13 ± 0.53 days), higher emergence rates (1.20 ± 0.27% vs. 0.85 ± 0.10%), and increased body mass during both early (3.28 ± 0.12 vs. 2.93 ± 0.08 mg) and later instars (77.55 ± 2.30 vs. 73.51 ± 1.17 mg) relative to those reared on the control diet. Metabolomic profiling revealed that the CK diet, characterised by lower levels of the essential fatty acid linoleic acid (LA), was associated with reduced metabolite abundance and weaker enrichment of energy-related metabolic pathways. In contrast, the F15 diet contained substantially higher levels of linoleic acid, which is known to contribute to membrane stability and mitochondrial function. Notably, linoleic acid was consistently enriched in the gut of F15-fed larvae, suggesting a correlative central role in promoting metabolic efficiency, growth, and developmental performance. Collectively, these findings provide mechanistic insight into how dietary composition modulates insect metabolism and highlight the nutritional and physiological advantages of corn-based formulations for large-scale rearing. This study offers a foundational theoretical foundation for optimising artificial diets and supports their application in sustainable pest-management programs. Full article