Insects最新文献

The silkworm, Bombyx mori, is an economically important insect severely impacted by Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV), a double-stranded DNA virus that causes substantial losses to the sericulture industry. To elucidate the mechanisms of BmNPV infection and replication, we performed transcriptome sequencing of BmN cells infected with a recombinant BmNPV at 12 and 24 h post infection (hpi). A total of 1136 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in the 12 hpi group, including 789 up-regulated and 347 down-regulated genes, while 5191 DEGs were detected at 24 hpi, including 2102 up-regulated and 3089 down-regulated genes. Functional annotation via GO and KEGG analyses highlighted the ECM-receptor interaction pathway as particularly significant. Furthermore, RT-qPCR results demonstrated that Map3k12 inhibits BmNPV replication. These findings lay the groundwork for further investigation into the molecular mechanisms of BmNPV infection and can be utilized for breeding dominant genes conferring resistance to nucleopolyhedrovirus in the silkworm.

Nestmate recognition is the primary defense mechanism maintaining the integrity of eusocial insect colonies. While social parasitism is widespread in Hymenoptera, it is rarely documented in termites, and the behavioral boundaries preventing interspecific infiltration remain poorly understood. Here, we investigated the potential for interspecific integration between two closely related termite species under laboratory conditions. We introduced Reticulitermes labralis workers and reproductives (queens and kings) into orphaned groups of R. aculabialis. We found that host workers exhibited caste-dependent aggression: introduced workers were immediately attacked and eliminated, whereas alien reproductives were partially tolerated. Surviving alien reproductives successfully integrated into host group, receiving allogrooming and trophallactic care from host workers. Crucially, these integrated pairs produced viable eggs and larvae. Molecular analysis confirmed that the brood reared by the host workers were the genetic offspring of the introduced R. labralis pair, demonstrating successful "cuckoo-like" reproduction. These findings reveal that termite colony recognition is sufficiently flexible to permit the acceptance of heterospecific reproductives when native royals are absent. While field evidence remains to be discovered, our results demonstrate that the behavioral and physiological prerequisites for social parasitism exist in termites, supporting the hypothesis that close phylogenetic relatedness (Emery's rule) facilitates the breach of social barriers.

Phloeosinus cupressi Hopkins is an invasive bark beetle that poses a serious threat to Cupressus trees, with potential ecological and economic impacts globally. Native to North America, it has spread to Australia and New Zealand, and climate change may further alter its range. Global trade increases the risk of spread, highlighting the need for predictive modeling in management. In this study, we employed CLIMEX and random forest (RF) models to project the potential global distribution of P. cupressi, incorporating host distribution data for Cupressus. Climatic suitability is concentrated in temperate, subtropical, and Mediterranean zones, including Europe, the U.S., South America, China, Australia, and New Zealand, totaling 10,165.22 × 10⁴ km². Coldest-quarter precipitation (bio19) and annual temperature range (bio7) were identified as the most influential variables. Under RCP6.0 scenarios, suitable areas are projected to expand northward, increasing by ~18%. Regional shifts include contraction in southern Europe and South China, expansion in southern Argentina, southeastern Australia, and coastal New Zealand. Temperature sensitivity is expected to exceed precipitation, enhancing colonization. Due to global Cupressus trade, quarantine and monitoring should focus on high-risk regions. Our findings support early detection, long-term monitoring, and control measures for managing P. cupressi under climate change.

Species delimitation in morphologically conserved groups poses a significant challenge for traditional taxonomy. In the Neotropical wasp genus Pachymenes (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae), two putative sister species-Pachymenes ater and P. ghilianii-have historically been distinguished by a limited set of ambiguous morphological characters, often complicated by intraspecific variation and overlapping geographic distributions. Here, we apply an integrative taxonomic framework combining morphological, molecular, and geographic evidence to test species limits between these two taxa. We reassess previously proposed diagnostic traits and explore the utility of additional characters across multiple lines of evidence. Our results indicate that some morphological characters traditionally used for identification are insufficient for clear separation of species, while other, previously overlooked traits offer improved resolution. Molecular data further support species distinction and provide new insights into the evolutionary relationship between P. ater and P. ghilianii. This study highlights the importance of combining diverse data sources for robust species delimitation in solitary wasps and contributes to a better understanding of species boundaries within Eumeninae.

Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum, systemic herbicide that has attracted concern over its non-target effects, environmental persistence, and the presence of residues in food. The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a major invasive pest of maize that can be controlled by application of its homologous nucleopolyhedrovirus (SfMNPV), an occluded virus in the family Baculoviridae. We examined the effects of a glyphosate-based herbicide on S. frugiperda growth and survival and on virus occlusion bodies (OBs) exposed to product label-recommended concentrations of the herbicide. Larval growth, time to pupation, pupal weight, duration of the pupal stage and sex ratio were not affected by exposure to the herbicide (1% v/v solution) applied to the surface of semi-synthetic diet. Exposure to 1-2% herbicide solution had no effect on the median lethal concentration (LC₅₀) of OBs, the susceptibility of second instar larvae to virus infection, or the production of OBs in virus-killed larvae. Virus acquisition did not vary significantly when larvae fed on virus-sprayed maize plants at 1 and 6 days after they had been treated with herbicide, compared to healthy plants. Finally, the presence of 2% herbicide solution did not influence the persistence of OBs in non-sterilized soil samples over a 6-week greenhouse experiment. Although the laboratory and greenhouse experiments indicated that the glyphosate-based herbicide tested was unlikely to influence the transmission or persistence of SfMNPV OBs, future studies should verify these findings across a range of field conditions, soil types and different herbicide formulations.

This study addresses the challenges of early recognition of fruit and vegetable diseases and pests in facility horticultural greenhouses and the difficulty of real-time deployment on edge devices, and proposes a lightweight cross-scale intelligent recognition network, Light-HortiNet, designed to achieve a balance between high accuracy and high efficiency for automated greenhouse pest and disease detection. The method is built upon a lightweight Mobile-Transformer backbone and integrates a cross-scale lightweight attention mechanism, a small-object enhancement branch, and an alternative block distillation strategy, thereby effectively improving robustness and stability under complex illumination, high-humidity environments, and small-scale target scenarios. Systematic experimental evaluations were conducted on a greenhouse pest and disease dataset covering crops such as tomato, cucumber, strawberry, and pepper. The results demonstrate significant advantages in detection performance, with mAP@50 reaching 0.872, mAP@50:95 reaching 0.561, classification accuracy reaching 0.894, precision reaching 0.886, recall reaching 0.879, and F1-score reaching 0.882, substantially outperforming mainstream lightweight models such as YOLOv8n, YOLOv11n, MobileNetV3, and Tiny-DETR. In terms of small-object recognition capability, the model achieved an mAP-small of 0.536 and a recall-small of 0.589, markedly enhancing detection stability for micro pests such as whiteflies and thrips as well as early-stage disease lesions. In addition, real-time inference performance exceeding 20 FPS was achieved on edge platforms such as Jetson Nano, demonstrating favorable deployment adaptability.

Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) is a high-reliability, -sensitivity, and -operability technique to quantify gene expression. It is necessary to select stable reference genes for normalization. Water plays important roles in the metabolism, physiology, distribution, and so on, in insects. In this study, the suitability of various reference genes for qRT-PCR analysis was evaluated in different developmental stages of Chilo suppressalis exposed to desiccation or rehydration stress. The ∆Ct method, geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper were used to evaluate the suitability of nine reference genes for normalizing gene expression in the third instar larvae, the fifth instar larvae, male pupae, female pupae, male adults, and female adults under different humidities. The results indicated that 18S rRNA was the most stable reference gene for monitoring gene expression in the third instar larvae, while ACTIN, TUB, UBI, UBI, and EF1 were the optimal genes for the fifth instar larvae, male pupae, female pupae, male adults, and female adults, respectively. The optimal number of reference genes recommended by geNorm analysis indicated that two candidate reference genes were sufficient for data normalization under all experimental conditions tested. To validate these recommendations, the expression profile of the gene encoding heat shock protein 60 (Hsp60) was investigated. Hsp60 transcript levels showed significant differences when normalized to the most stable single reference gene, or combined reference genes, compared with the least stable reference gene. The reference genes identified in the present study will enhance the reliability of gene expression data for C. suppressalis under humidity stress.

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.

The global population continues to rise, placing increasing pressure on the agri-food sector and leading to the accelerated generation of urban organic waste, factors that collectively intensify climate stress and environmental instability. Insects are recognised for their remarkable capacity to transform substrates into valuable products, with the black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) emerging as one of the most efficient and widely utilised species for this purpose. Beyond recycling organic matter, BSFL can also mitigate microbial contamination, effectively reducing bacterial and fungal loads in waste substrates. Understanding and manipulating the genome could provide tools to improve BSFL bioconversion process and contribute to sustainability. In this review, we provide an overview of recent advances in black soldier fly genomics and genome-editing technologies. Although research in this subject remains limited, recent studies have clarified its origin, characterised its genome, and established the foundation for targeted genetic improvements to enhance by-product conversion, nutrient recovery, and environmental sustainability.

Microwave heating has been widely used for disinfestation in the food industry due to its selective heating. However, research on the effects of microwave heating on stored product insects is still relatively limited, which has restricted its broader application in grain pest control storage. Therefore, this study evaluated the lethal effects of different microwave powers and exposure times on three major pests in paddy and investigated the impact of microwave treatment on improving adult detection efficiency, intending to develop a rapid and efficient detection method for stored grain insects. The results showed that the mortality of Sitophilus oryzae, Tribolium castaneum, and Oryzaephilus surinamensis increased with the increase in microwave power and exposure time. Specifically, 100% mortality was achieved for both S. oryzae and T. castaneum at 700 W for 60 s exposure. However, higher power levels and longer exposure durations exacerbated the non-uniformity of grain temperature distribution and adversely affected the germination rate. In addition, microwave treatment at 350 W, 490 W, and 700 W significantly reduced fungal load in paddy. The moisture content and water activity of rice decreased with the increase in microwave power and exposure time, while the percentage of grain breakage remained largely unaffected. These findings indicated that microwave treatment can effectively control insects and fungi without significantly altering the main physical properties of paddy. Notably, microwave treatment with short exposure durations (20-30 s) at all three power levels is conducive to increasing the recovery percentage of S. oryzae adults, while microwave treatment at low power (350 W) with exposure durations of 25-40 s helps improve that of T. castaneum. Accordingly, microwave heating is not only a promising strategy for protecting stored grains but also has potential for development as a rapid detection method for specific insect pests.