Insects最新文献

Carposina sasakii Matsumura is a significant lepidopteran pest in the Carposinidae family, inflicting substantial damage on stone and pome fruit trees such as jujube, peach, and apple. Using MaxEnt, we assessed the worldwide climatic suitability for C. sasakii and its key environmental drivers, evaluating how climate change impacts dispersal risks. Integrating global occurrence records with 37 environmental variables, the model (AUC = 0.982) quantitatively identifies July precipitation (prec7), minimum average temperatures in April and August (tmin4 and tmin8, respectively), and maximum average temperature in May (tmax5) as critical distribution determinants. Among these, prec7 exhibits the highest contribution (threshold approximately 370 mm). The current suitable habitat spans 10.39 × 10² km², concentrated predominantly in East Asia's temperate monsoon zone (eastern China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan) and southern North America. Under future climate scenarios, the high-emission pathway (SSP585) will reduce highly suitable areas, while moderately suitable zones expand coastward. In contrast, SSP370 projects a significant, albeit phased, habitat increase with a 19.61% growth rate. Precipitation regimes and extreme temperatures jointly regulate niche differentiation in C. sasakii, whose range shifts toward Southeast Asia and suboptimal regions in Europe and America, underscoring cascading climate change effects. These findings provide a scientific basis for transnational monitoring, early warning systems, and regional ecological governance.

Recent intensive research on the cypress bark beetle, Phloeosinus aubei was prompted because of its invasion of Central Europe that caused serious damage to scale-leaved conifer ornamental trees. This dynamic also increased the risk of accidental introduction into North America. In contrast to other historically well-studied bark beetles infesting spruce, pine or broad-leaf trees, intense study of the pheromones and host plant kairomones of bark beetles associated with cupressaceous trees has only begun in the past decade. This highly specialized clade is represented by the genus Phloeosinus. The pressing need for semiochemical-baited traps demands the identification of behavior-modifying compounds. This challenge involves unraveling the various stimuli interacting in the complex communication system to reveal the composition of signal bouquets and the absolute configuration of their components capable of evoking behavior responses. In this short overview we describe the recent research results on host-finding and intraspecific chemical communication of P. aubei, with a short outlook on the species of this genus.

Insect pollination, a critical ecological process, pre-dates the emergence of angiosperms by nearly 200 million years, with fossil evidence indicating pollination interactions between insects and non-angiosperm seed plants during the Late Paleozoic. This review examines the symbiotic relationships between insects and gymnosperms in pre-angiosperm ecosystems, highlighting the complexity of these interactions. Fossil records suggest that the mutualistic relationships between insects and gymnosperms, which facilitated plant reproduction, were as intricate and diverse as the modern interactions between angiosperms and their pollinators, particularly bees. These early pollination systems likely involved specialized behaviors and plant adaptations, reflecting a sophisticated evolutionary dynamic long before the advent of flowering plants. The Anthropocene presents a dichotomy: while climate change and anthropogenic pressures threaten insect biodiversity and risk disrupting angiosperm reproduction, such upheaval may simultaneously generate opportunities for novel plant-insect interactions as ecological niches are vacated. Understanding the deep evolutionary history of pollination offers critical insight into the mechanisms underlying the resilience and adaptability of these mutualisms. The evolutionary trajectory of bees-originating from predatory wasps, diversifying alongside angiosperms, and reorganizing after mass extinctions-exemplifies this dynamic, demonstrating how pollination networks persist and reorganize under environmental stress and underscoring the enduring health, resilience, and adaptability of these essential ecological systems.

The house cricket, Acheta domesticus, is found globally. It is an agricultural pest causing economic damage to a wide variety of crops including cereal seedlings, vegetable crops, fruit plants, and stored grains. Additionally, crickets act as mechanical vectors of pathogens by harboring bacteria, fungi, viruses, and toxins, causing foodborne illnesses. They can contaminate stored grains, packaged foods, or animal feed due to deposition of their feces, lowering the quality of the food and creating food safety risks. Synthetic insect repellents, such as pyrethroids and carbamates, have been used previously in integrated pest management practices to control crickets. Though successful as repellents, they have been associated with health and environmental risks and concerns. The use of organic green repellents, such as plant essential oils, may be a viable alternative in pest management practices. In this study, we tested the effects of 27 plant-based essential oils on the behavior of A. domesticus. A. domesticus were introduced into an open arena to allow them unrestricted movement. A transparent plastic bottle containing an essential oil treatment was placed in the arena to allow voluntary entry by the crickets. Following a predetermined observation period, the number of crickets that entered the bottle was recorded, and percent entry was calculated as the proportion of individuals inside the bottle relative to the total number in the arena. Analysis of the percentage entry into the bottles allowed for a comparative assessment of repellency of the selected essential oils examined in this study. Essential oils that elicited high levels of entry into the bottle were categorized as having weak or no repellency, while those that demonstrated reduced entry were classified as moderate or strong repellents. Our results indicated that A. domesticus responded with strong repellent behavior to nearly half of the essential oils tested, while four essential oils and two synthetic repellents evoked no significant repellent responses. Four strong repellent essential oils, namely peppermint, rosemary, cinnamon, and lemongrass, were tested at different concentrations and showed a clear dose-dependent repellent effect. The results suggest that selected essential oils can be useful in the development of more natural "green" insect repellents.

Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith, 1797), an omnivorous crop pest worldwide, reproduces prolifically. Validamycin, a competitive natural inhibitor of trehalase, is regarded as an effective and safe insecticide. Pupae were injected with a validamycin gradient (0.5-10 µg/µL) to block trehalase; enzyme activity and the Vitellogenin gene (Vg)/its receptor gene (VgR) expression (rpL10 reference) were subsequently quantified to determine the compound's impact on S. frugiperda ontogeny and fecundity. Validamycin directly inhibited pupal membrane-bound trehalase, sharply lowering glycogen. Both pupal and adult mortality rose with dose, yielding marked abnormalities versus the Control Check (CK) group. At 0.5 μg/μL validamycin, eggs blackened and clumped in the lateral oviduct, blocking release; treated females produced far fewer eggs by day 4, exhibited ovarian atrophy, shorter lifespan, and low hatchability. The expression levels of Vg and VgR in the ovaries of the fall armyworm were consistent with the changes in the ovarian developmental phenotype. Validamycin significantly inhibited the activity of trehalase in S. frugiperda, severely hindering their normal eclosion and lowering the potential reproductive capacity of S. frugiperda. Simultaneously, it directly affects ovarian development and the lifespan of female moths. The results provide data to support the development of new methods for controlling S. frugiperda.

Common methods for detecting Drosophila suzukii (spotted-wing drosophila, SWD) in fruit, such as microscopy, physical extraction, and incubation, are time-consuming and may underrepresent egg and first instar larvae counts, the smallest life stages of SWD. To address these limitations, we evaluated a quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) protocol to detect and quantify SWD eggs using a linear model of the log-transformed ratio of eggs to sample volume (µL) in Tris buffer and fruit tissue. Compared to traditional approaches, this method reduces identification time from several weeks to approximately five hours. We observed a negative linear correlation between qPCR cycle threshold and egg concentration in both standard and fruit tissue samples, with similar model fits (R² = 0.7215 for field fruit tissue; R² = 0.874 for standard samples). This DNA-based protocol improves infestation detection speed and accuracy by enabling rapid, species-specific identification of D. suzukii in fruit tissue, addressing limitations of morphological identification of eggs and larvae. Further refinement for fruit tissue could enhance real-world applicability. Rapid detection may enable timely assessment of varietal resistance to SWD and support safer control strategies targeting early life stages, helping to prevent pest development and fruit degradation.

Laboratory maintenance of mosquitoes is important for studying vector biology and transmission of diseases, and for testing vector control tools. Standard operating procedures require feeding larvae with commercial fish meal. However, for many insectaries in sub-Saharan Africa, the commonly used feeds are imported and accompanied by procurement challenges. Changing the larval feed abruptly without allowing the larvae to adapt to new brands of feed also leads to a decrease in mosquito colonies in the laboratory. We investigated locally acquired beans, maize, and dried herrings as alternate feeds for mosquito larvae reared under laboratory conditions. Four replicates for each treatment were prepared, each containing 100 first instar larvae of Anopheles gambiae Tiassalé mosquitoes. The larvae were introduced into 500 mL of dechlorinated tap water and maintained under standard environmental insectary conditions. The larvae were provided with 40 mg of the designated powdered feed-beans, maize, and herring fish-in single and combined treatments. Tetra^® goldfish meal was included as a control. The larval mortality, developmental time, and number of pupae were recorded to evaluate the effectiveness of the feeds. Adult mosquitoes were weighed and measured to assess fitness, and females from each treatment were blood-fed and allowed to lay eggs to evaluate fertility. Larval survival differed significantly across diets (Kruskal-Wallis, p = 0.01), with maize-fed larvae showing the highest mortality (41.3%) and those with herring-based diets the lowest. Pupation and adult emergence were poorest in the maize and maize-bean groups, while the maize-herring combination achieved the highest emergence (92.6%, p = 0.03). Although overall differences were detected among the groups, conservative pairwise tests did not pinpoint specific group contrasts, but effect size estimates suggested biologically meaningful patterns. Generally, adult body weight and wing length did not differ by treatment except in maize-fed males (β = 0.371 mm, p = 0.022). Herring fish-based diets consistently supported larval survival, timely development, and robust fecundity, whereas maize-based diets were nutritionally inadequate. These findings highlight herring fish-based diets as a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to commercial feeds for maintaining Anopheles mosquito colonies, with potential to strengthen vector research capacity in resource-limited laboratories.

Ants act as keystone species in terrestrial ecosystems, providing important ecosystem services. The large-scale production and application of GO constitute a predominant contributor to its inevitable environmental dispersion. Most GO toxicity studies have focused on plants, animals, and microorganisms, with limited research on ground-dwelling ants. In the study, we used Camponotus japonicus as a model to investigate the toxic effects of GO on ants by integrating physiological characteristics, gut microbiota and transcriptome profiling. Results showed that GO exposure induced mitochondrial dysfunction, as evidenced by mitochondrial ROS accumulation and elevated mitochondrial membrane permeability. Physiological assessments revealed that GO exposure induced oxidative stress. Specifically, GO treatment significantly suppressed superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities, while enhancing peroxidase (POD) and carboxylesterase (CarE) activities and increasing the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and trehalose. Gut microbiota analyses showed that GO remarkably reduced the relative abundance of beneficial bacterial symbionts (e.g., Candidatus Blochmannia) and destabilized the whole community structure. Furthermore, transcriptome profiling revealed 680 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the ants after GO exposure, most of which were significantly enriched in pathways associated with oxidative phosphorylation. This study suggests that GO may compromise ant-mediated ecosystem function and provides a reference for understanding the environmental risks of GO. Our findings also offer new insights for protecting the ecosystem services of ants.

Implementing mating disruption (MD) programs to manage codling moth (CM), Cydia pomonella (L.), should be based on knowledge of how effectively each program disrupts female mating. A recent survey of 142 pome fruit orchards under MD in Washington State and Oregon found that, on average, about half of the CM females caught in traps baited with a kairomone-based lure were mated. However, significantly lower proportions of mated females were sampled when the intensity of the MD program was increased. A standardized protocol that could reduce the large inter-orchard variability was developed, involving weekly releases of sterilized CM adults. Eleven trials were conducted in 2023 and 2024 across 82 orchards treated with 20 MD programs. The intensive MD programs were significantly more effective in reducing mating of both wild and sterile CM females. Three advantages of using sterile moths to assess CM MD were identified: (i) it minimized the impact of wild immigrant females or individuals previously exposed to sublethal spray residues; (ii) it allowed greater numbers of females to be dissected, thus increasing the precision of the mean value; and (iii) it and allowed the collection of sufficient sampling data (>5 CM females per site) from 30% more orchards than relying on wild moth catch.

Crabronid wasps (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) are ecologically important predators that provide various ecological services by regulating the arthropod populations, enhancing soil processes through nesting, serving as sensitive indicators of habitat condition, and providing pollen transfer for plants. However, as other invertebrates face biodiversity threats, these wasps might be under threat from environmental changes, and we need to assess the biodiversity patterns of these wasps in Yunnan Province. Unfortunately, no information is currently available about the pattern and factors responsible for the assemblages of these wasps within our study region. This study provides the first province-level assessment of habitat suitability, species richness, assemblage structure, and environmental determinants for Crabronidae in Yunnan by integrating species distribution modeling (SDM), multivariate clustering, and ordination analyses. More than 50 species were studied to assess habitat suitability in Yunnan using MaxEnt. Model performance was robust (AUC > 0.7). Suitability patterns varied distinctly among regions. Species richness peaked in southern Yunnan, particularly in the counties of Jinghong, Mengla, Menghai, and Jiangcheng Hani & Yi. Land use/land cover (LULC) variables were the dominant predictors for 90% of species, whereas precipitation-related variables contributed most strongly to the remaining 10%. Ward's hierarchical clustering grouped the 125 counties into three community assemblage zones, with Zone III comprising the most significant area. A unique species composition was found within a particular zone, and clear separation among zones based on environmental variation was supported by Principal Component Analysis (PCA), which explained more than 70% variability among zones. Furthermore, Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) indicated that both LULC and climatic factors shaped community structure assemblages, with axes 1 and 2 explaining 70% of variance (p = 0.001). The most relevant key factors in each zone were precipitation variables (bio12, bio14, bio17), which were dominant in Zone I; for Zone II, temperature and vegetation variables were most important; and urban, wetland, and water variables were most important in Zone III.