Frontiers in insect science最新文献

Bean aphids are a major constraint to bean production worldwide and are commonly managed through intensive pesticide use. In many farming systems, particularly where crop production is increasingly intensified, reliance on chemical control has reduced the use and the appreciation of agroecological pest management strategies, including conservation biological control. The widespread application of pesticides not only suppresses natural enemies of aphids but also contributes to broader declines in insect diversity, especially when combined with the loss of non-crop habitats that support beneficial insects. To address this, we assessed whether engineering bean crop habitats with flowering plants could enhance adult hoverfly populations and increase hoverfly larval abundance within bean fields. The potential of four flowering plant species (Galinsoga parviflora, Ocimum basilicum, Bidens pilosa and Ageratum conyzoides) grown around bean crops to attract hoverflies was evaluated. Bean crops surrounded by flowering plant species were able to reduce aphid numbers and damage by 51% compared to the control treatment which had no field margin. Bean fields surrounded by O. basilicum had the lowest aphid damage score (1.2) and highest bean yield (917 kg/ha). Overall, bean crops surrounded by flowering plant species yielded between 621 to 917 kg/ha, which was 22-42% higher than the untreated control (509 kg/ha). Such evidence may help support policies that promote agroecological practices instead of synthetic pesticides.

Introduction: Urban landscapes are increasingly recognized as key arenas for biological invasions, yet the mechanisms enabling the local coexistence of multiple highly invasive species remain poorly understood. Urban habitat fragmentation generates mosaics of habitat patches that differ in size, isolation, and microhabitat complexity, shaping ant community structure and competitive interactions.

Methods: Here, we investigated ant assemblages across a mosaic of urban habitat patches within a university campus in Buenos Aires, Argentina, focusing on four globally invasive ant species (Wasmannia auropunctata, Linepithema humile, Nylanderia fulva, and Solenopsis invicta) near the southern limit of their native ranges. We quantified species richness, abundance and composition using pitfall traps and evaluated species-specific indicators of food discovery, recruitment, and dominance using standardized bait experiments.

Results: Ant assemblages differed significantly among habitat patches, with marked spatial variation in richness, diversity, and species composition. Contrary to expectations of rigid dominance hierarchies, no single species consistently dominated across patches. Nylanderia fulva showed the highest numerical abundance and discovery efficiency, L. humile exhibited the strongest recruitment ability, and W. auropunctata displayed localized dominance near nesting areas, while S. invicta was rare and competitively subordinate. Ordination and multivariate analyses indicated strong spatial structuring of assemblages, consistent with the influence of urban fragmentation and patch-level heterogeneity.

Discussion/conclusion: Overall, our results support a metacommunity perspective in which invasive ant coexistence in urban systems is mediated by context-dependent competitive interactions rather than fixed dominance hierarchies. By emphasizing the role of fine-scale spatial structure, this study provides a nuanced, system-specific contribution to understanding invasive ant dynamics in urban environments.

Introduction: Ticks are hematophagous ectoparasites that must overcome significant physiological challenges during blood feeding. These include managing oxidative stress, detoxifying host-derived molecules, and reallocating energy to support digestion, tissue remodeling, and reproduction.

Methods: In this study, we conducted a de novo transcriptome assembly and genome-wide transcriptional profiling of female Ixodes persulcatus ticks at three key feeding stages: unfed, semi-engorged, and fully engorged. Functional annotation and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analyses were conducted to characterize stage-associated transcriptional changes, with a focus on metabolic detoxification and antioxidant systems.

Results and discussion: We generated a reference transcriptome containing 56,900 unigenes. Comprehensive analyses of metabolic detoxification and antioxidant systems revealed species-specific expansions in key supergene families such as cytochrome P450s and glutathione S-transferases. The expression profiles across feeding stages revealed pronounced physiological changes in response to blood meal, and GO enrichment analysis showed that these changes were mainly involved in blood acquisition, nutrient metabolism, respiratory processes, hormone synthesis, egg development, immune responses, ROS detoxification, transcription and translation. These findings offer new insights into the molecular physiology of tick hematophagy and provide a valuable resource for future studies on stress responses and metabolic regulation in ticks.

Protophormia terraenovae is a forensically important blow fly species in cold regions. This study investigated its development at constant temperatures (15-25°C). Results showed that developmental duration significantly decreased with increasing temperature, with the total period ranging from 779.33 hours at 15 °C to 396.67 hours at 25 °C. The hatching and third-instar larval stages were most temperature-sensitive. We established Isomorphen and Isomegalen models, which visually illustrated the prolongation of development progress and the increased time required for larval growth per millimeter as temperature decreased. Thermal summation models indicated a strong linear relationship for the hatching and third-instar stages. Furthermore, we found that pupal weight was a more reliable growth indicators than length or width. This study provides fundamental developmental data and models for improving the accuracy of postmortem interval estimation using P. terraenovae in forensic practice.

Trichogramma chilonis Ishii, 1941 and Telenomus remus Nixon, 1937 are the most common egg parasitoids of fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith, 1797) in maize growing areas. FAW lays single to multilayered egg which are covered with degrees of scale thickness. Here, we assessed the parasitism of both parasitoids over different FAW egg densities (single layered), egg mass scale coverage (multilayered), and the egg ages. Two laboratory experiments were conducted from May to November 2022 under controlled conditions (24.3 ± 0.8 °C, 69.3 ± 2.2% RH). The first experiment, using a three-factor complete randomized design (CRD), involved two egg parasitoid species, single-layered eggs at three densities (20, 43, and 60 eggs), and three egg age groups (less than 12 hours, 24-36 hours, and 48-60 hours), each replicated three times. The second experiment involved two parasitoid species, multilayered eggs with three levels of egg scale coverage (fully covered, partially covered, uncovered), and three egg age groups, each replicated three times. T. remus exhibited significantly higher parasitism rates than T. chilonis in both single and multilayered egg masses. T. remus parasitized all egg groups uniformly, while T. chilonis struggled with fully covered egg masses. Parasitism percentage decreased with the age of the host eggs in both parasitoid species. T. remus showed a higher adult emergence percentage, regardless of egg scale covering but declined with increasing host egg age. The percentage of female progeny and development period were similar for both parasitoid species but decreased as egg density and egg age increased.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/finsc.2025.1692096.].

Huanglongbing (HLB) is considered the most serious Citrus disease for which there are currently no effective control methods. The putative agents of HLB, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), and the vector Diaphorina citri, are widespread in citrus regions, causing losses in citrus cultivation worldwide. Studying the interactions between D. citri and CLas can elucidate disease epidemiology and determine specific targets for HLB control. This work aimed to improve our understanding of the host-bacteria (D. citri-CLas) relationship, focusing on cysteine peptidase (DcCathL) and its inhibition by citrus cystatin (CsinCPI-2). In this study, a combination of qPCR, FISH, and immunolocalization techniques was employed to detect DcCathL genes or proteins in CLas-free or -infected D. citri samples. To verify the effect of DcCathL inhibition on insect survival, an artificial diet assay containing recombinant CsinCPI-2 was performed with infected and healthy D. citri nymphs and adults. Accordingly, a relative expression of DcCathL 1.23 times higher and an approximately 3.3 times greater DcCathL transcripts in gut tissue were demonstrated in CLas-infected compared to CLas-free insects. Furthermore, the presence of DcCathL protein was detected in the gut, ovary, and salivary glands of D. citri, concentrated at the peripheral regions of the cells. The fluorescence signal associated with DcCathL indicates that the gut of infected D. citri contains 4.81 times more protein than the gut of a healthy insect. Similarly, the protein levels in the salivary glands and ovaries of infected insects were 1.38 and 1.1 times higher, respectively, compared to those of CLas-free insects. The efficacy of the artificial diet in delivering the recombinant protein to the insect was demonstrated by the detection of green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the intestinal tract of nymphs and adults. Finally, the CsinCPI-2 demonstrated a substantial increase in mortality among CLas-free nymphs (df = 1, p < 0.0001) and CLas-free or CLas-infected adults (df = 1, p = 0.0001). Thus, the development of inhibitors that can disrupt the interactions between bacteria and vectors by blocking DcCathL activity may represent a promising strategy to prevent the spread of HLB disease.

Strepsipterans of the family Myrmecolacidae are endoparasitoid insects of ants distributed worldwide, except in the Palearctic and Antarctic regions. Despite this, knowledge about their host ants and the effects of this parasitism on their biology remains scarce. To fill this gap in Brazil, we used yellow pan traps in a fragment of Atlantic Forest in search of stylopized ants (i.e., parasitized by Strepsiptera). The present study records for the first time the observation of a stylopized worker ant of the species Ectatomma edentatum in Brazil and details the general behavior of stylopized ants. Furthermore, we discuss the potential of yellow pan traps as a collection method of stylopized ants and compare their functionality to previously employed methods.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/finsc.2025.1736825.].