Search Results (643)

Accurate assessment of rice resistance to Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) is essential for breeding insect-resistant cultivars. Traditional assessment methods rely on manual scoring of damage severity, which is subjective and inefficient. To overcome these limitations, this study proposes an automated resistance evaluation approach based on multi-view 3D reconstruction and deep learning–based point cloud segmentation. Multi-view videos of rice materials with different resistance levels were collected over time and processed using Structure from Motion (SfM) and Multi-View Stereo (MVS) to reconstruct high-quality 3D point clouds. A well-annotated “3D Rice WBPH Damage” dataset comprising 174 samples (15 rice materials, three replicates each, 45 pots) was established, where each sample corresponds to a reconstructed 3D point cloud from a video sequence. A comparative study of various point cloud semantic segmentation models, including PointNet, PointNet++, ShellNet, and PointCNN, revealed that the PointNet++ (MSG) model, which employs a Multi-Scale Grouping strategy, demonstrated the best performance in segmenting complex damage symptoms. To further accurately quantify the severity of damage, an adaptive point cloud dimensionality reduction method was proposed, which effectively mitigates the interference of leaf shrinkage on damage assessment. Experimental results demonstrated a strong correlation (R² = 0.95) between automated and manual evaluations, achieving accuracies of 86.67% and 93.33% at the sample and material levels, respectively. This work provides an objective, efficient, and scalable solution for evaluating rice resistance to S. furcifera, offering promising applications in crop resistance breeding. Full article

Endosymbiotic bacteria influence the ecology and evolution of insects through complex associations within host cells. To explore how these relationships vary among environments and taxa, we examined 1028 insect specimens from 14 orders across Korea for infections by three representative endosymbionts (Wolbachia, Rickettsia, and Spiroplasma). Overall, 33.8% of specimens were infected, with single infections predominating and co-infections remaining relatively less common. Weak-to-modest but statistically significant associations were detected between several symbiont pairs (Rickettsia–Spiroplasma, Wolbachia–Spiroplasma, and Wolbachia–Rickettsia). Infection rates exhibited no significant variation among host orders except for Spiroplasma, and Wolbachia infections were more frequently detected in terrestrial than in aquatic insects. These results indicate that endosymbiont infection patterns might be shaped by factors operating at multiple biological scales, including host taxonomy and habitat types. As this study relied on polymerase chain reaction detection, infection frequencies should be interpreted as comparative rather than absolute measures. This survey provides baseline data that might help characterize regional patterns of endosymbiont distributions and their variation across taxonomic and ecological contexts. Full article

As an important factor affecting the yield and quality of grain crops and threatening grain security, traditional pest and disease monitoring can no longer meet the needs of accurate and efficient agricultural production. The development of remote sensing technology provides a new monitoring method, which is specific, accurate and efficient, and provides real-time, rapid and non-destructive spectral data information for the identification of the occurrence and severity of pests and diseases and can realize large-scale monitoring of grain crop pests and diseases. In this paper, through the statistics and analysis of the published literature on remote sensing monitoring of grain crop diseases and pests, the research hotspots and directions of remote sensing monitoring of grain crop diseases and pests are clarified. Based on this foundation, this paper systematically elaborates the mechanism underlying remote sensing-based monitoring and prediction of diseases and insect pests in grain crops. It reviews various remote sensing monitoring approaches for such diseases and pests by leveraging multi-source remote sensing data. Furthermore, it summarizes methodologies for constructing monitoring and prediction models for grain crop diseases and insect pests. Finally, the paper discusses current challenges and future development trends in this field. Full article

This article presents the design, fabrication, and experimental validation of a centimeter-scale autonomous robot that achieves bidirectional locomotion and trajectory control through 3D-printed resonators actuated by piezoelectricity and integrated with miniature legs. Building on previous works that employed piezoelectric bimorphs, the proposed system replaces them with custom-designed 3D-printed resonant plates that exploit the excitation of standing waves (SW) to generate motion. Each resonator is equipped with strategically positioned passive legs that convert vibratory energy into effective thrust, enabling both linear and rotational movement. A differential drive configuration, implemented through two independently actuated resonators, allows precise guidance and the execution of complex trajectories. The robot integrates onboard control electronics consisting of a microcontroller and inertial sensors, which enable closed-loop trajectory correction via a PD controller and allow autonomous navigation. The experimental results demonstrate high-precision motion control, achieving linear displacement speeds of 8.87 mm/s and a maximum angular velocity of 37.88°/s, while maintaining low power consumption and a compact form factor. Furthermore, the evaluation using the mean absolute error (MAE) yielded a value of 0.83° in trajectory tracking. This work advances the field of robotics and automatic control at the insect scale by integrating efficient piezoelectric actuation, additive manufacturing, and embedded sensing into a single autonomous platform capable of agile and programmable locomotion. Full article

The global population growth has driven the widespread adoption of genetically modified crops, with Bt maize, due to its insect resistance, becoming the second most widely planted GM crop. However, studies on the effects of continuous Bt maize cultivation on soil ecosystems are limited, and there is an urgent need to assess its ecological safety at the regional scale. To evaluate the potential effects of continuous cultivation of transgenic Bt maize on the soil ecosystem, a five-season continuous planting experiment was conducted using two Bt maize varieties (5422Bt1 and 5422CBCL) and their near-isogenic conventional maize (5422). After five consecutive planting seasons, bulk soil and rhizosphere soil were collected. The main nutrient contents of the bulk soil were measured, and high-throughput sequencing was employed to analyze microbial diversity and community composition in both soil types. The results showed that, compared with the near-isogenic conventional maize 5422, continuous planting of Bt maize varieties 5422Bt1 and 5422CBCL did not affect the contents of organic matter, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, total potassium, alkaline hydrolyzable nitrogen, available phosphorus, or available potassium in bulk soil. Regarding the microbial communities in bulk soil, there were no significant differences in the α-diversity indices of bacteria and fungi after five consecutive seasons of Bt maize cultivation, compared with soils planted with the near-isogenic conventional maize 5422. Proteobacteria and Ascomycota were the dominant phyla of bacteria and fungi, respectively. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that the structure of microbial communities in bulk soil was primarily influenced by factors such as OM, TP, TN and AN, whereas the Bt maize varieties had no significant effect on the overall community structure. Regarding the rhizosphere soil microbial communities, compared with the near-isogenic conventional maize 5422, the evenness of the bacterial community in the rhizosphere soil of Bt maize decreased, leading to a reduction in overall diversity, whereas species richness showed no significant change. This change in diversity patterns further contributed to the restructuring of the rhizosphere soil microbial community. In contrast, the fungal community showed no significant differences among treatments, and its community structure remained relatively stable. Proteobacteria and Ascomycota were the dominant phyla of bacteria and fungi, respectively. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) indicated that continuous cultivation of Bt maize for five seasons had no significant effect on the structure of either bacterial or fungal communities in the rhizosphere soil. In summary, continuous cultivation of Bt maize did not lead to significant changes in soil nutrient contents or microbial community structures, providing a data foundation and theoretical basis for the scientific evaluation of the environmental safety of transgenic maize in agricultural ecosystems. Full article

Grasshoppers and their allies (Orthoptera) are numerous and diverse insects globally, while being significant components of biodiversity and nutrient cycling. They are variously responsive to environmental change but are paradoxical, as some species are major pests while others are threatened or even extinct. Most orthopteran species are somewhere in between, with their assemblage composition shifting in response to changing conditions and according to the response traits of the constituent species. With global concern over the impact of conventional agriculture on biodiversity, there is currently a strong transition to agroecology. The agroecological approach is two-fold: to set aside land and to better manage the overall landscape. Both approaches aim to boost the numbers and diversity of most orthopterans, while reducing the impact of the pest species using biologically based pesticides instead of chemical pesticides as part of an integrated pest management program. Set-aside land is present at various spatial scales for conservation action, involving a diversity of practical approaches. Management depends on understanding orthopteran responses to change, and harnessing the positive responses using, for example, improved grazing, fire management, and vegetation diversification for maximizing habitat heterogeneity. These initiatives also recognize the additional interactive effect of climate change and extreme weather events. Importantly, improvement of orthopteran abundance and diversity is an integral component of overall biodiversity conservation. New technologies, both aerial and genomic, are advancing the field of orthopteran biology and ecology greatly. We review advances being made in the field that hold the most promise and suggest ways forward based on three themes: appreciating orthopteran value, recognizing the adverse drivers of orthopteran abundance and diversity, and better design and management of agroecosystems. Full article

Rice is one of the world’s most important staple crops, and outbreaks of insect pests pose a persistent threat to yield stability and food security in major rice-growing regions. Reliable field-scale rice pest detection remains challenging due to limited datasets, heterogeneous imaging conditions, and inconsistent annotations. To address these limitations, we construct RicePest-30, a field-oriented dataset comprising 8848 images and 62,227 annotated instances covering 30 major rice pest species. Images were collected using standardized square-framing protocols to preserve spatial context and visual consistency under diverse illumination and background conditions. Based on RicePest-30, YOLOv11 was adopted as the primary detection framework and optimized through a systematic hyperparameter tuning process. The learning rate was selected via grid search within the range of 0.001–0.01, yielding an optimal value of 0.002. Training was conducted for up to 300 epochs with an early-stopping strategy to prevent overfitting. For fair comparison, YOLOv5s, YOLOv8s, Faster R-CNN, and RetinaNet were trained for the same number of epochs under unified settings, using the Adam optimizer with a learning rate of 0.001. Model performance was evaluated using Precision, Recall, AP@50, mAP@50:95, and counting error metrics. The experimental results indicate that YOLOv11 provides the most balanced performance across precision, localization accuracy, and counting stability. However, all models exhibit degraded performance in small-object scenarios, dense pest distributions, and visually similar categories. Error analyses further reveal that class imbalance and field-scene variability are the primary factors limiting detection robustness. Overall, this study contributes a high-quality, uniformly annotated rice pest dataset and a systematic benchmark of mainstream detection models under realistic field conditions. The findings highlight critical challenges in fine-grained pest recognition and provide a solid foundation for future research on small-object enhancement, adaptive data augmentation, and robust deployment of intelligent pest monitoring systems. Full article

In this work, a numerical tool is presented to simulate the dynamics of insect wing folding by example of the fan folding of the dermapteran hindwing. The scalability of the system is demonstrated by generalising the mechanical behaviour from the small geometry of the wing to a suitable scale for engineering applications, such as deployable structures for space applications. The tool is written in Python and based on the MuJoCo physics engine. Sections of the anal fan are modelled as a bar-and-hinge model with elastic tendons, allowing a high number of design parameters and fast computation. In light of these advantages, the wing folding and unfolding behaviour is investigated with respect to the tendon’s elastic properties and the actuation of the deformation. Bistability is characterised using a single tendon and the entire fan section. Given the upscaled geometry of the analysed section, the required tendon characteristics to transition between the stable states are identified within a reasonable range for technological transfer towards biomimetic structures modelled after the dermapteran hindwing. Full article

As an important natural enemy insect, Harmonia axyridis has significant biological control effects on a variety of pests such as aphids in agroforestry ecosystems. The large-scale application of H. axyridis has long been limited by the unstable supply of natural prey, poor rearing of alternative prey and artificial diets, and high costs. In this paper, we review the research progress on the effects of alternative prey and artificial diets, and present the results and shortcomings of H. axyridis rearing. Focusing on the nutritional requirements of H. axyridis and the nutrient composition of natural prey, the paper aims to analyze and optimize the core components of artificial diets, develop diet formulations that are highly efficient, low-cost, support the ladybird throughout its complete life cycle, and identify the key factors for breaking the bottleneck of large-scale reproduction of H. axyridis, with a view to facilitate the industrialization of H. axyridis, enhancing the efficacy of biocontrol, and providing references to the development of diets for other natural enemy insects. Full article

Invasive insects increasingly threaten ecosystems worldwide, with wetlands especially vulnerable to unpredictable climate. Phragmites australis is a dominant plant species in Louisiana’s Mississippi River Delta and a critically important component of the wetland ecosystem. However, the invasive scale insect, Nipponaclerda biwakoensis, has contributed to large-scale dieback of this foundation species, jeopardizing erosion control, water filtration, and wildlife habitat. Despite rapid regional spread, the fine-scale dispersal of N. biwakoensis within host plants remains poorly understood. We examined whether the crawler-stage of N. biwakoensis scales preferentially settled on the bottom or top sections of P. australis stems, and whether plant nutritional and/or defensive traits shaped this preference. In field surveys, scale densities varied along the length of P. australis stems, with gravid females occurring 3.5× more frequently at the stem base than at the top; parasitism rates were similarly elevated, reaching 12× higher at the base. To evaluate potential drivers of this pattern, we quantified carbon, nitrogen, water, and phenolic content in lower and upper stem tissues and conducted complementary laboratory assays to test crawler settlement preferences. Under controlled conditions, crawlers settled most densely on middle stem sections, with lower densities at the base and the fewest near the top. The basal sections also contained 50% less nitrogen and 47% lower phenolic concentrations compared to the upper stem. The divergence in crawler settlement patterns between field and controlled conditions likely reflects the influence of additional environmental factors present in the field—such as habitat structure, microclimate, and natural enemies—that are absent or minimized in laboratory conditions. By applying a trait-based approach to insect dispersal, we link plant functional traits to N. biwakoensis crawler settlement patterns, strengthening our understanding of of insect distribution and guiding predictions of long-term dispersal in N. biwakoensis. Full article

Fast-running flies (Diptera: Hybotidae) play an important role as predators in agricultural landscapes. This semi-field study examined the effects of pesticides on Hybotidae communities and their role in natural pest control in three winter wheat management systems (organic, conventional, and hybrid (no chemical synthetic pesticides with optimized use of nitrogen fertilizers)) in Brandenburg, Germany. To evaluate the impact of management practices, sweep netting and eclector trapping were carried out over three years (2020–2022) at the plot scale. Hybotidae abundance fluctuated across the management systems and collection methods, with no consistent trend linked to pesticide use. However, an increase in the abundance of Hybotidae in 2022, especially in eclector trapping, indicated that year-to-year fluctuations were pronounced and likely driven by environmental factors, such as climate and soil moisture, rather than management practices. The community structure showed a high degree of similarity among all management systems, but species diversity displayed pronounced interannual variation, suggesting complex ecological interactions. Sweep netting collections indicated positive predator–prey associations in every management system, pointing to a generally stable trophic structure. The study also demonstrates that using multiple insect collection methods is crucial for accurately assessing insect diversity and abundance. Further research is needed to fully understand species diversity, predator–prey dynamics, and their implications for sustainable agriculture. Full article

The edible insect industry produces ingredients that are utilised in both animal feed and human food. However, the quality control of these ingredients and products is carried out using traditional routine chemical analysis, which generates waste and is considered both costly and time-consuming. Therefore, these techniques are not considered suitable for a sustainable and green industry. Consequently, the edible insect industry requires environmentally friendly methods that can be used in quality control along the insect supply and value chains. Most of these methods are based on the use of molecular spectroscopy and optical sensors (near- and mid-infrared, Raman spectroscopy) that allow for the large-scale analysis of chemical composition, authentication, and traceability of the products and processes, helping the real-time data collection and management decision tools. This paper provides an overview of the use of rapid and objective techniques in different examples associated with edible insects. Full article

This study aims to develop a novel high-efficiency lure for Tomicus yunnanensis Existing bark beetle attractants often rely on single or fixed-ratio blends of host volatiles and their oxidation products, which struggle to mimic the dynamic release process of insect semiochemicals in nature. To address this, we established a dynamic reaction system based on the catalytic oxidation of α-pinene: ① background control (no catalyst, no heating), ② thermal oxidation system (no catalyst, 40 °C), and ③ catalytic oxidation system (with a titanium–copper modified chabazite-type zeolite catalyst, 40 °C). Behavioral screening using a Y-tube olfactometer revealed a clear gradient in attraction effectiveness among the three systems: catalytic oxidation > thermal oxidation > background control. The products from the catalytic oxidation system at 2 h of reaction showed the highest efficacy, achieving an attraction rate of 61%, which was significantly superior to the α-pinene control. These results indicate that generating dynamically proportioned volatile mixtures through catalytic oxidation can significantly enhance the attraction of T. yunnanensis Further analysis by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) demonstrated that the catalyst efficiently promoted the directional conversion of α-pinene into key bioactive compounds such as verbenol, myrtenal, and myrtenone, thereby substantially improving behavioral activity. After field validation, this dynamically released attractant could potentially be developed into a real-time field-release lure system for monitoring adult emergence and large-scale trapping, providing a feasible new technological pathway for the precise and sustained management of bark beetle pests. Full article

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is altering nocturnal ecosystems. While the effects of direct light sources on insect behavior are well studied, the influence of large-scale skyglow on migratory orientation remains unclear. Here, we tested how skyglow-induced luminance gradients influence the flight orientation of the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, a globally invasive nocturnal migrant that performs seasonal migration in China, using controlled indoor simulations and field assays. Surprisingly, individuals consistently oriented toward darker regions, suggesting that luminance gradients may influence their heading away from the expected seasonal migratory direction. This response was highly consistent across both settings, indicating that skyglow-generated luminance gradients can function as directional cues and potentially interfere with seasonal orientation processes. Such gradients may thus function as ecological traps and represent an underrecognized factor in nocturnal insect navigation. Our findings point to a previously overlooked pathway through which skyglow may affect long-distance orientation in nocturnal migrants, underscoring the need for further work to evaluate its ecological significance within light-polluted environments. Full article

Vespid wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) represent ecologically and economically significant insect resources, possessing extremely high nutritional and medicinal value. In response to escalating market demand and declining wild populations, artificial indoor rearing of vespid wasps has emerged as a sustainable strategy. This approach not only helps conserve and utilize this valuable resource, supporting traditional medicine and local cuisine, but also contributes to invasive species control in affected regions. The large-scale rearing of wasps must integrate their biological characteristics with advanced rearing technologies to achieve rational rearing practices, while continuously optimizing management models. This article systematically reviews the biological characteristics of wasps, traditional rearing methods, and the current status of wasp rearing. It focuses on the methods and key technologies for the outdoor rearing of Vespa mandarinia and year-round indoor rearing. Additionally, it discusses the advantages of artificial indoor rearing, identifies critical technical challenges, and provides a summary and outlook on the future development trends, aiming to provide theoretical support for the large-scale and industrialized development of indoor wasp rearing. Full article