Annual review of entomology最新文献

Aphids are small, soft-bodied insects, and many are notorious pests of field crops, vegetables, fruit trees, ornamental plants, and trees. In China, there is an increasing emphasis on utilizing biological control agents, including aphidopathogenics, and selective pesticides for the management of aphids. In particular, preventive integrated pest management strategies with early interventions reduce the financial and environmental costs associated with treatments of outbreaks. Decades of progress have proved that biological control is a cost-effective and environmentally safe control option. Here, we review the history and progress of aphid control, with an emphasis on major natural enemies, mass-rearing, and conservation, and provide two successful cases, constraints, and future perspectives on aphid biological control in China.

The East Asian Insect Flyway is a globally important migration route stretching from the Indochina Peninsula and the Philippines through East China to Northeast China and northern Japan, although most migrants utilize only part of the flyway. In this review, we focus on long-range windborne migrations of lepidopteran and planthopper pests. We outline the environment in which migrations occur, with emphasis on the seasonal atmospheric circulations that influence the transporting wind systems. Northward movement in spring is facilitated by favorable prevailing winds, allowing migrants to colonize vast areas of East Asia. Migrants may be subject to contemporary natural selection for long flights as succeeding generations progressively advance northward. Overshooting into far northern areas from which there is little chance of return seems common in planthoppers. Moths are less profligate and have evolved complex flight behaviors that can facilitate southward transport in autumn, although timely spells of favorable winds may not occur in some years.

Tea is the second most consumed beverage after water; thus, tea plants are economically important crops in many countries. The frequent application of chemical pesticides over large plantations of tea monoculture has led to pest outbreaks. In recent years, high amounts of highly water-soluble pesticides have been applied because of the proliferation of piercing-sucking insects; however, this method poses health hazards for humans and has negative environmental effects. This review outlines the effects of pesticide applications on the succession of tea pest populations, the risks posed by the use of highly water-soluble pesticides, and the principles of tea pest management. Various pest control techniques, including physical, biological, chemical-ecological, chemical pesticide, and cultural control methods, have been used in the last few decades. We discuss future prospects and challenges for the integrated pest management of tea plantations.

(E)-β-farnesene (EBF) stands out as a crucial volatile organic compound, exerting significant influence on the complex interactions between plants, aphids, and predator insects. Serving as an alarm signal within aphids, EBF is also emitted by plants as a defense mechanism to attract aphid predators. This review delves into EBF sources, functions, biosynthesis, detection mechanisms, and its coevolutionary impacts on aphids and insect predators. The exploration underscores the need to comprehend the biophysical and structural foundations of EBF receptors in aphids, emphasizing their role in unraveling the intricate patterns and mechanisms of interaction between EBF and target receptors. Furthermore, we advocate for adopting structure-based or machine-learning methodologies to anticipate receptor-ligand interactions. On the basis of this knowledge, we propose future research directions aiming at designing, optimizing, and screening more stable and efficient active odorants. A pivotal outcome of this comprehensive investigation aims to contribute to the development of more effective aphid-targeted control strategies.

In the last few decades, we have witnessed the emergence of new vector-borne diseases (VBDs), the globalization of endemic VBDs, and the urbanization of previously rural VBDs. Data harmonization forms the basis of robust decision-support systems designed to protect at-risk communities from VBD threats. Strong interdisciplinary partnerships, protocols, digital infrastructure, and capacity-building initiatives are essential for facilitating the coproduction of robust multisource data sets. This review provides a foundation for researchers and practitioners embarking on data harmonization efforts to (a) better understand the links among environmental degradation, climate change, socioeconomic inequalities, and VBD risk; (b) conduct risk assessments, health impact attribution, and projection studies; and (c) develop robust early warning and response systems. We draw upon best practices in harmonizing data for two well-studied VBDs, dengue and malaria, and provide recommendations for the evolution of research and digital technology to improve data harmonization for VBD risk management.

Insects have evolved diverse interactions with a variety of microbes, such as pathogenic fungi, bacteria, and viruses. The immune responses of insect hosts, along with the dynamic infection process of microbes in response to the changing host environment and defenses, require rapid and fine-tuned regulation of gene expression programs. Epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and noncoding RNA regulation, play important roles in regulating the expression of genes involved in insect immunity and microbial pathogenicity. This review highlights recent discoveries and insights into epigenetic regulatory mechanisms that modulate insect-microbe interactions. A deeper understanding of these regulatory mechanisms underlying insect-microbe interactions holds promise for the development of novel strategies for biological control of insect pests and mitigation of vector-borne diseases.

Animal venoms are a focus of research due to the hazards they represent and to their relationship to evolution and ecology, pharmacology, biodiscovery, and biotechnology. Venoms have evolved multiple times in Lepidoptera, mostly as defensive adaptations that protect the larval life stages. While venoms are always produced in structures derived from cuticle and setae, they are diverse in their composition and bioactivity, reflecting their multiple evolutionary origins. The most common result of envenomation by lepidopterans is pain and inflammation, but envenomation by some species causes fatal hemorrhagic syndromes or chronic inflammatory conditions in humans or veterinary pathologies such as equine amnionitis and fetal loss. The handful of lepidopteran venom toxins that have been characterized includes coagulotoxins from Lonomia obliqua (Saturniidae) and pain-causing cecropin-like peptides from Doratifera vulnerans (Limacodidae). However, our knowledge of lepidopteran venoms remains comparatively poor, with further studies required to yield a clear picture of the evolution, composition, and function of venoms produced by Lepidoptera.

Atmospheric gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) and ozone (O₃), influence plant-insect interactions, with variable effects. The few studies that have investigated the direct effects of elevated CO₂ (eCO₂; 750-900 ppm) or elevated O₃ (eO₃; 60-200 ppb) on insects have shown mixed results. Instead, most research has focused on the indirect effects through changes in the host plant. In general, the lower nitrogen levels in C3 brassicaceous plants grown at eCO₂ negatively affect insects and may result in compensatory feeding. Phytohormones involved in plant resistance may be altered by eCO₂ or eO₃. For example, stress-related jasmonate levels, which lead to induced resistance against chewing herbivores, are weakened at eCO₂. In general, eCO₂ does not affect herbivore-induced plant volatiles, which remain attractive to natural enemies. However, floral volatiles and herbivore-induced plant volatiles may be degraded by O₃, affecting pollination and foraging natural enemy behavior. Thus, eCO₂ and eO₃ alter plant-insect interactions; however, many aspects remain poorly understood.

Mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue and malaria, pose a significant burden to global health. Current control strategies with insecticides are only moderately effective. Scalable solutions are needed to reduce the transmission risk of these diseases. Symbionts and genome engineering-based mosquito control strategies have been proposed to address these problems. Bacterial, fungal, and viral symbionts affect mosquito reproduction, reduce mosquito lifespan, and block pathogen transmission. Field tests of endosymbiont Wolbachia-based methods have yielded promising results, but there are hurdles to overcome due to the large-scale rearing and accurate sex sorting required for Wolbachia-based suppression approaches and the ecological impediments to Wolbachia invasion in replacement approaches. Genome engineering-based methods, in which mosquitoes are genetically altered for the modification or suppression of wild populations, offer an additional approach for control of mosquito-borne diseases. In particular, the use of gene drive alleles that bias inheritance in their favor is a potentially powerful approach. Several drives are frequency dependent, potentially giving them broadly similar population dynamics to Wolbachia. However, public acceptance and the behavior of released drives in natural mosquito populations remain challenges. We summarize the latest developments and discuss the knowledge gaps in both symbiont- and gene drive-based methods.

Most insects encountered in the field are initially entomological dark matter in that they cannot be identified to species while alive. This explains the enduring quest for efficient ways to identify collected specimens. Morphological tools came first but are now routinely replaced or complemented with DNA barcodes. Initially too expensive for widespread use, these barcodes have since evolved into powerful tools for specimen identification and sorting, given that the evolution of sequencing approaches has dramatically reduced the cost of barcodes, thus enabling decentralized deployment across the planet. In this article, we review how DNA barcodes have become a key tool for accelerating biodiversity discovery and analyzing insect communities through both megabarcoding and metabarcoding in an era of insect decline. We predict that DNA barcodes will be particularly important for assembling image training sets for deep learning algorithms, global biodiversity genomics, and functional analysis of insect communities.Review in Advance first posted online on October 1, 2024. Updated on November 5, 2024. Changes may still occur before final publication.