Journal of economic entomology最新文献

This study presents the diversity and composition of pests infesting stored hazelnuts in the Eastern Black Sea region of Türkiye, a region that supplies nearly 40% of the world's hazelnuts. A total of 174 samples were collected from industrial facilities, merchants/traders, and producer storage units in the districts of three provinces in this region: Ordu, Giresun, and Trabzon. In total, 21 pest species were identified, of which eleven were confirmed as hazelnut pests, six had no reported association with hazelnuts, and four were fungivorous or detritivorous. The most widespread species included Plodia interpunctella, Cadra cautella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), Tribolium confusum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), and Carpophilus dimidiatus (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), with P. interpunctella detected in all surveyed districts. Natural enemies comprised two parasitoids, Habrobracon hebetor (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and Venturia canescens (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), and a predatory mite Blattisocius tarsalis (Mesostigmata: Blattisociidae), with H. hebetor the most frequently encountered species. Biodiversity metrics, including Simpson D, Shannon-Wiener H', and Whittaker β revealed significant spatial and storage-related variation in community structure. Industrial facilities supported the highest species richness, while storage in bigbags and jute sacks yielded greater diversity than bulk storage, highlighting the influence of storage conditions on insect assemblages. These results demonstrate how storage practices shape insect biodiversity, community composition, and pest-enemy interactions in stored hazelnut. Beyond their applied relevance for integrated pest management, these findings provide a framework for understanding ecological drivers of insect diversity in storage environments.

The bird cherry-oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi (Linnaeus; Hemiptera: Aphididae), is a major cereal pest and a vector within the barley yellow dwarf virus complex. Manual scouting is labor-intensive and can be inconsistent, motivating rapid, image-based monitoring. We developed R. padi Count, an optimized deep learning framework built on Ultralytics YOLO11 for automated detection and image-level counting of R. padi in cluttered imagery. Starting from a YOLO11n baseline, we integrated an ADown downsampling module, Triplet Attention, and a Focusing Diffusion Pyramid Network module to improve small-object discrimination while limiting computational overhead. The model was trained and evaluated on smartphone images acquired under semi-controlled greenhouse conditions that captured variable backgrounds and occlusion. Relative to evaluated YOLO baselines, R. padi Count improved detection accuracy and reduced counting error, achieving a mean average precision at an IoU threshold of 0.50 (mAP50) of 92.97%, with an image-level mean absolute error of 1.86 aphids per image and a root mean squared error of 3.50 aphids per image. These results support the feasibility of practical, image-based aphid monitoring in the studied setting and provide a foundation for future evaluations of cross-scenario robustness and on-device performance in deployment contexts.

Dose change is one of the main levers of pesticide resistance management. Various arguments have been made about the consequences of changing the applied dose, especially arguing against decreasing dose below the full dose because it increases the dominance of monogenic resistance and increases the speed, level, and/or likelihood of polygenic resistance. Here, using simulations and analytics of a model that explicitly incorporates pesticide persistence, the effects of changing the applied dose on resistance evolution for solo and mixture strategies are described and explained. A methodological breakthrough allows the simulations and analytics to powerfully show that decreasing dose should generally be expected to delay the evolution of pesticide resistance. While decreasing dose can increase dominance and change the level of polygenic tolerance, the critical effect of decreasing the applied dose on the evolution of resistance is the decrease in pesticide efficacy. Consequently, efficient dose mixtures, which have lower than full doses of each pesticide but have the same efficacy when mixed, are most often the winning strategy in 51% of simulations. Analytical techniques show that decreasing dose tends to delay resistance because of the incorporation of pesticide persistence across plausible scenarios involving low susceptible migration, high target efficacy, and high resistance factors. The methodological breakthrough opens the scope for incorporating the critical effects of pesticide persistence into the analysis of other resistance-management questions.

Ruspolia differens Serville (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) is among the most widely consumed edible insect in Eastern and Central Africa, where it contributes to both household nutrition and income generation. As a nutrient-dense food source, it offers a promising alternative to curb food insecurity and malnutrition. Despite this, the consumption and use of the grasshopper is limited to its seasonal availability when it is collected from the wild. Coupled with this, is limited evidence on its domestication despite research advances to optimize conditions for mass production. This review was conducted to highlight research advances and gaps on production, processing, nutritional profile, and safety of R. differens as a food source. Findings from the review revealed that R. differens is widely consumed in Africa. It is rich in protein (28% to 54%), fat (33% to 49%), amino acids, fatty acids, micronutrients, and antioxidants; however, its nutrient quality and shelf life are influenced by diverse processing methods. Studies have reported the presence of pathogenic microorganisms in some market samples, highlighting the need for improved hygiene and processing standards. Therefore, enabling policies, captive rearing, and safe processing of R. differens would be revolutionary in increasing its availability, consumption, and commercialization for improved food and nutrition security.

The compatibility between insecticides and biological control agents is essential for the success of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies. This study evaluated the lethal, sublethal, and transgenerational effects of 5 insecticides-malathion, bifenthrin, beta-cyfluthrin, diflubenzuron, and tebufenozide-on Trichogramma atopovirilia Oatman & Platner, 1983 (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae), a parasitoid and potential biological control agent of Gymnandrosoma aurantianum Lima, 1927 (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in citrus orchards. The results showed that malathion, bifenthrin, and beta-cyfluthrin significantly reduced parasitism, emergence, and adult longevity. These insecticides were classified as harmful (Class 4), moderately harmful (Class 3), and slightly harmful (Class 2), respectively, according to the IOBC/WPRS guidelines. In contrast, diflubenzuron and tebufenozide were classified as harmless (Class 1), demonstrating minimal adverse effects on biological parameters and exhibiting low persistence under simulated field conditions. Transgenerational evaluations indicated that while emergence and sex ratio remained unaffected, longevity was reduced in certain treatments. These results highlight the importance of selecting insecticides that are compatible with natural enemies in IPM programmes, and suggest that insect growth regulators are a safe and effective alternative to conventional insecticides for conserving T. atopovirilia in citrus agroecosystems.

Insect cold tolerance is critical for overwintering survival. Chrysoperla nipponensis (Okamoto) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae), a dominant natural enemy in biological control, was studied to investigate its cold tolerance mechanisms for effective conservation. Three diapause states were simulated. Excluding temperature effects, diapause induction significantly enhanced cold tolerance, which increased progressively with diapause depth. The supercooling point (SCP) and freezing point (FP) during stable diapause were significantly lower than during induction, indicating superior low-temperature tolerance. Although photoperiod treatments showed no significant differences in SCP and FP of 5-d adults, the 24-h low-temperature survival rate was significantly higher during diapause induction than in the non-diapause state. Glycerol content increased significantly during diapause and positively correlated with cold tolerance. RNA interference of the glycerol kinase gene CnGK2 significantly reduced both glycerol content and low-temperature survival, demonstrating that CnGK2 promotes glycerol accumulation to improve cold tolerance. This work provides a foundation for enhancing overwintering protection and spring biocontrol efficacy of this commercially important natural enemy.

Substituting fresh mulberry leaves with artificial (compound) diets is a growing trend in industrialized sericulture. However, breeder silkworms (Bombyx mori, Lepidoptera: Bombycidae) reared on artificial diets (ADs) throughout their larval stage exhibit severely impaired reproductive fitness, which is a major bottleneck and the mechanism responsible remains unclear. In this study, we demonstrated that rearing on AD inhibited 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) signaling during the pupal stage, thereby interfering with the synthesis and transport of vitellogenin and 30Kc19 in the fat body. This perturbation caused the abnormal accumulation of 30Kc19 and egg-specific protein in the ovary, as well as severe glycogen deficiency, which ultimately suppressed oogenesis, reduced the egg quantity and quality, and triggered transgenerational declines in offspring viability and reproductive performance. Exogenous 20E supplementation effectively restored the female reproductive capacity. Thus, we elucidated the mechanism responsible for the reproductive decline of silkworms reared on AD, providing a theoretical foundation for intervention strategies.

Predatory mites transitioning from mass-rearing to field release undergo critical prey switching from rearing hosts to target pests. Understanding temporal adaptation of predatory capacity postswitching is essential for biological control optimization. This study examines how prey switching duration affects predatory performance in Neoseiulus bicaudus Wainstein (Mesostigmata: Phytoseiidae) following from Tyrophagus putrescentiae Schrank (Sarcoptiformes: Acaridae) to Tetranychus turkestani Ugarov et Nikolskii (Trombidiformes: Tetranychidae). The predatory adaptation of female N. bicaudus was assessed during 0 to 7 days postprey switching through integrated approaches: Y-tube olfactometry quantified olfactory responses to T. turkestani, predatory choice tests evaluated feeding preference shifts, Holling type II functional response modeling analyzed predation capacity changes, and field releases on soybean Glycine max (L.) Merr. validated biological control efficacy against T. turkestani. Prey switching enhanced N. bicaudus adaptation to T. turkestani. Olfactory preference increased steadily, with significant shifts by Day 3, peaking at 73.33% by Day 6. Feeding preference shifted from avoidance (D = -0.39, D: prey selectivity index) to strong attraction (D = 0.94), stabilizing >0.9 after Day 4. Though functional response remained Holling Type II, key parameters optimized at Day 4: minimal handling time (Th = 0.04 days), daily maximum predation (1/Th = 26.25), and predation capacity (a/Th = 21.18, where a is attack rate). Field validation showed that the suppressive effect of N. bicaudus (which had experienced prey-switching) on T. turkestani could be enhanced by up to 73.44%. Neoseiulus bicaudus progressively enhances olfactory preference, feeding preference, and predatory capacity toward target prey following prey switching. Implementing this preadaptive strategy significantly improves the mite's field control efficacy against spider mites.

The ectoparasitic mite Tropilaelaps mercedesae (Delfinado & Baker 1961: Mesostigmata: Laelapidae) poses a major emerging threat to Apis mellifera (Linnaeus 1758: Hymenoptera: Apidae), with its recent detection in Eastern Europe raising concerns over dispersal biology and potential for transcontinental spread. Understanding intra- and inter-colony transmission is crucial for predicting epidemiological impact. While forager-mediated dispersal has been demonstrated under tropical conditions, little is known about transmission in temperate climates. We investigated T. mercedesae dispersal via swarming under temperate conditions in Georgia. In a natural swarming event, 8 female T. mercedesae mites transferred from the source colony. Four died within a week, but the remaining four mites entered and became sealed within the first sealed brood produced by the colony. Two of these mites reproduced, confirming swarm-mediated phoretic mite persistence. To examine the survival of phoretic mites in broodless, queenright colonies, as well as during the building of new colonies, we created two artificial colonies by gathering returning foragers which originated from T. mercedesae infested colonies. Dispersal via foragers was confirmed as the artificial colonies contained 23 and 17 mites, respectively. However, none successfully reproduced, despite colonies producing brood within the same timescale as the natural swarm, and all mites died within 4 to 6 d. Furthermore, we provide the first evidence of T. mercedesae transmission via swarming under temperate conditions, with natural swarms facilitating survival and reproduction. These results highlight swarming as a viable mechanism for mites' dispersal, potentially enabling rapid expansion of T. mercedesae in newly invaded environments.

The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta Buren) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) poses a significant ecological threat, yet its effects on aerially collected arthropods diversity in orchard-based agro-ecosystems remain poorly understood. While previous studies often report declines in native arthropod populations following red imported fire ant (RIFA) invasion, systematic assessments across different orchard habitats are scarce. This study investigated short-term differences in aerial arthropod community composition and diversity between RIFA-invaded and RIFA-excluded guava (Psidium guajava) and cherimoya (Annona cherimola) orchards. Although invaded plots showed slightly higher total abundance and family richness, diversity metrics (eg. Shannon diversity and Pielou's evenness) were marginally higher in exclusion plots; however, none of these differences were statistically significant. Hedges' g effect size estimates also indicated nonsignificant trends toward increased abundance and minor changes in family richness in invaded plots, indicating a limited effect of RIFA on aerial arthropod assemblages. However, correlation analyses revealed that temperature, precipitation, and humidity positively influenced arthropod abundance and family richness-particularly in invaded areas-whereas atmospheric pressure had a suppressive effect. These results indicate that, while RIFA invasion or short-term exclusion did not substantially alter aerial arthropod composition or community structure in orchard-based agro-ecosystems, but the role of climatic variables may shape biodiversity outcomes. Future studies should incorporate longer-term monitoring, multimethod trapping, and explicit partitioning of functional groups to clarify whether the observed subtle trends foreshadow delayed community reorganization or remain ecologically minor.