Annual review of entomology最新文献

I still remember the insect collection required for my high school biology class, not because of any particular fascination with the diversity of the insects but because I hated touching and pinning the dead bodies. I somehow managed, and it is maybe surprising that I ended up working on insects for most of my scientific career. Remembering that abhorrence made me much more sympathetic to students in my entomology classes who suffered the same aversion. We found an alternative. When I look back, I realize that I have raised caterpillars pretty much each summer since 1965. And I have loved it.

Species interactions are defined by the behavioral strategies deployed by the parties involved. However, a barrier to fully understanding the processes shaping those strategies has been the limited knowledge about the diverse and complex ways in which species can interact. Here, we perform a systematic review to examine the natural history and evolutionary ecology of the interactions between two large clades with a long evolutionary history together: Diptera and Amphibians. We outline three main strategies that have evolved multiple times within Diptera: (a) adult flies feeding on amphibian blood (micropredators), (b) fly larvae feeding on anuran eggs (egg predators), and (c) fly larvae acting as parasites or parasitoids of adult frogs (myiasis). We provide a synthesis of the distinct phylogenetic and biogeographical signatures of these strategies and identify current gaps in our understanding of these complex interactions. Ultimately, this work emphasizes the intricate nature of trophic strategies that can arise between invertebrates and vertebrates.

Tick-borne zoonotic diseases continue to emerge in North America and Europe. Of particular concern are pathogens transmitted by Ixodes ticks, such as Borrelia spp., the causal agents of Lyme disease (Lyme borreliosis). Because Ixodes ticks are adapted to forested habitats with high humidity and depend on wildlife for feeding and movement, research has focused on natural or rural landscapes. Demographic and land-use transitions, however, have created novel ecosystems in urban and periurban areas with high potential for human exposure. We describe post-World War II land processes giving rise to these ecosystems and explore resource-based habitat concepts and top-down community ecology perspectives aimed at predicting tick-borne disease (TBD) risk. We review studies in Europe and North America that demonstrate TBD risk in urban areas and potential drivers for TBD emergence. We identify missed opportunities for data measurements and reporting and propose metrics to quantify landscape connectivity to facilitate future syntheses or meta-analyses.

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP) are omnipresent in our daily lives, and these emerging contaminants require increasing attention. PPCP and their metabolites are found in treated wastewater and in biosolids resulting from wastewater treatment, thus providing routes for dissemination to soils, freshwater, and groundwater, with subsequent consequences for insects. This review explores the effects of PPCP on the molecular, physiological, and biological (including behavior) responses of insects and consequences for their microbiota. As several PPCP can bioaccumulate in insects, in particular in aquatic ones, their roles in the transfer of the drugs to riparian and terrestrial food web are discussed, as well as community-level consequences. We propose future research directions to better appreciate the side effects and unintended effects of medication on insects. Attention should be given to the effects of PPCP on insects in environmentally realistic scenarios with relevant concentrations, in combination with other environmental pollutants, and with durations of exposure.

Ants and termites play important roles in tropical ecosystems, leading to an evolutionary arms race in which diverse foraging, predation, and counterpredation strategies developed. These strategies resulted in the emergence of specialized predators of termites, such as the African termite-raiding ant, Megaponera analis, which organizes coordinated raids on termites of agricultural importance belonging to the subfamily Macrotermitinae. Decades of field and laboratory studies have examined the natural history of M. analis, describing its distribution, raiding behavior, chemical ecology, task allocation, rescue and other helping behaviors, and nursing of wounds. However, the potential of M. analis for the management of termites is yet to be explored. This review synthesizes the literature on M. analis, outlines recent progress in understanding its ecology, identifies knowledge gaps, and proposes directions for future research and possible applications of the knowledge to different fields.

The insect cuticle is a complex extracellular matrix that provides physical support and protection against infection, dehydration, mechanical injury, and stress. Chitin with different degrees of deacetylation, and various kinds of cuticle proteins, lipids, and other organic molecules, are crucial structural components of the insect cuticle. To meet the demands of development, insects periodically molt to shed their old cuticles and form new ones. Increasing research attention has been focused on the molecular mechanism of cuticle biosynthesis and the intracellular transport and assembly of the structural components. Although the whole picture of how insect cuticle is precisely formed remains elusive, breakthroughs in the last decade have revealed a number of enzymes and protein factors that are involved in the cuticle formation. This review summarizes recent advances in molecular aspects of insect cuticles, with particular emphasis on the roles of proteins, which are also promising targets for pest control and management.

An estimated 20% of about 400,000 species of beetles (Coleoptera) are flower visitors. Despite this huge taxonomic and natural history diversity, beetle-flower interactions have historically been overlooked and summarized as inefficient mess-and-soil pollinators associated with an easily recognizable flower syndrome. Here, we combine classical and artificial intelligence-supported review methods to discuss the reasons for this neglect, which include biased documentation and pervasive views that reflect only a subset of beetle-flower interactions. We review general trends in extant and fossil flower beetle morphology, behavior, and diversity, as well as the diversity of the flowers they visit. We discuss how the fossil record and molecular phylogenetics show both ancient associations preceding angiosperm dominance and numerous cases of derived associations leading to more recent diversification. The context dependency of beetle-flower interaction outcomes and their pervasiveness could be leveraged to improve our understanding of insect diversification processes and the costs and benefits of different pollination systems.

Mosquito-borne infectious diseases, such as malaria, respond to environmental change in a complex way because the transmission of Plasmodium depends on a set of context-specific ecological and social factors that influence mosquito vectors and humans differently. Malaria continues to be a serious public health problem for populations living in and near the tropical humid forest of the Amazon region, where evidence suggests that deforestation of the Amazon forest has been the main environmental driver of persistent epidemics. In this review, we focus on the impact of increasing forest degradation on the ecology of anopheline vectors and how aspects of mosquito population dynamics, such as abundance and the rate of human-vector contact, may mediate the relationship between environmental transformation and malaria risk. We also discuss the increasingly important role of regional zoonotic malaria. The sustainability of the malaria elimination strategy in the Americas will require a better understanding of the adaptation of mosquitoes to increasing anthropogenic pressures on the Amazon rainforest.

Recent studies using metatranscriptome sequencing have revealed a diversity of viruses associated with insects. Researchers have used various approaches to establish patterns of transmission of insect-specific viruses and have shown that insects often harbor viruses that are inherited from parents to offspring. It remains unclear, however, whether heritable viral symbioses can be understood in the same ecological and evolutionary framework that has been established for bacterial symbiosis. We review studies showing beneficial and pathogenic effects of heritable viruses on their hosts, and we discuss additional ways that heritable viruses shape insect evolution. We also compare bacterial and viral symbiosis and review ways that this emerging field can be used for biocontrol of pests and insect-borne pathogens. Heritable viruses are a key part of the ecology and evolution of insects. A framework for studying symbiosis between insects and these microbes is important for a comprehensive understanding of insect biology.

Herbivorous insects can shape the epidemiology of disease in plants by vectoring numerous phytopathogens. While the consequences of infection are often well-characterized in the host plant, the extent to which phytopathogens alter the physiology and development of their insect vectors remains poorly understood. In this review, we highlight how insect-borne phytopathogens can promote vector fitness, consistent with theoretical predictions that selection should favor a mutualistic or commensal phenotype. In doing so, we define the metabolic features predisposing plant pathogens to engage in beneficial partnerships with herbivorous insects and how these mutualisms promote the microbe's propagation to uninfected plants. For the vector, the benefits of co-opting microbial pathways and metabolites can be immense: from balancing a nutritionally deficient diet and unlocking a novel ecological niche to upgrading its defensive biochemistry against natural enemies. Given the independent origins of these tripartite interactions and a number of convergent features, we also discuss the evolutionary and genomic signatures underlying microbial adaptation to its dual lifestyle as both a plant pathogen and an insect mutualist. Finally, as host association can constrain the metabolic potential of microbes over evolutionary time, we outline the stability of these interactions and how they impact the virulence and transmission of plant pathogens.Updated on December 8, 2025.