For Large-Scale Pest Insect Detection, Traps in Parallel Lines More Efficient Than Grids | Entomology Today

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Detecting pest insects across large areas means placing vast numbers of traps, with associated costs to set them up and check them regularly. Grid patterns have been the traditional choice, but a new study shows trap-placement patterns using parallel lines could be just as effective with much lower servicing requirements.

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Tick Blitz: How Community Science is Helping New York State Monitor Ticks | Entomology Today

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With a little bit of training, 59 citizen scientists in New York collected more than 3,700 ticks across 15 counties in a two-week period in the summer of 2021, greatly expanding the reach of professional tick researchers at the Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases. The "New York State Tick Blitz" is now an annual project and a model that tick-surveillance programs elsewhere can follow.

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Next Time You Eat a Kiwifruit, Don’t Thank a Bee | Entomology Today

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Honey bees and bumble bees excel at pollinating wide varieties of plants and crops, but kiwifruit is not one of them. A study investigating kiwifruit pollination methods found fruit developed on barely 3 percent of bee-pollinated flowers, leaving artificial pollination (by human hand) as the primary choice for kiwifruit growers.

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Curious About Edible Insects? There’s a Free Online Course for That | Entomology Today

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The first-ever massive open online course (MOOC) on edible insects was launched in March, based on one entomologist's popular university course. Learn more about the development of the "Edible Insects" MOOC and what it offers to online learners around the world.

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Mosquito Migration: Study Finds More High-Altitude Dispersal of Disease Vectors in Africa | Entomology Today

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Following the discovery that mosquitoes can ride high-altitude winds to travel long distances, further research is adding to both the scope and variety of species engaged in such migrations—factors sure to complicate efforts to curb transmission of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases in Africa.

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Mosquito Populations Linked Across Further Distances Than the Viruses They Carry | Entomology Today

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In an analysis of mosquito sampling across 20 years in Connecticut, mosquito populations were often correlated at sites 10 kilometers apart and sometimes as far as 40 kilometers apart. But the same data showed the presence of mosquito-borne viruses rarely correlated across distances more than 5 kilometers, complicating potential approaches to managing mosquitoes and the risk of vector-borne disease.

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Honey Bee Virus Found in Mosquitoes | Entomology Today

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While analyzing genetic signatures of microbes found in mosquitoes, researchers in Canada were surprised to find black queen cell virus, a common scourge of honey bees. The mosquitoes likely acquired it while foraging for nectar at the same plants as bees, but it's unclear if mosquitoes have any role in spreading it among bees.

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U.S. Quinoa Crops Threatened by Little-Known Fly Pest | Entomology Today

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Quinoa's emergence as an attractive, climate-resilient crop in the U.S. has been met with a fresh challenge from a stem-boring fly species, Amauromyza karli, previously known in Canada. While research is scant on this new pest, a new profile in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management outlines what we know—and what we need to find out—about reducing its impact on quinoa.

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The State of Insect Resistance to Transgenic Bt Crops | Entomology Today

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Crops engineered to produce insecticidal proteins from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have had many noteworthy successes in the past 25 years, but resistance to Bt crops has evolved in numerous instances, as well. A new research review examines global patterns of resistance to Bt crops and outlines strategies for maximizing sustainability of this important tool for pest management.

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What’s in a Nest: Scavenger Turns Major Pest in Chicken Houses | Entomology Today

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Lesser mealworm beetles (Alphitobius diaperinus) evolved to live in bird nests, and in broiler chicken houses their populations explode. A new pest profile in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management outlines why lesser mealworms are exceptionally challenging to manage in chicken houses and identifies key research needs for future progress.

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Another Non-Native Mosquito Species Adds to Growing List in Florida | Entomology Today

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Mosquito researchers in Florida report the presence of in the state of Culex lactator, a species previously known from Central and South America. The arrival adds to the growing list of non-native mosquito species finding their way into Florida—a worrying trend for public-health entomologists.

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RNAi Insecticide Offers Promise for Managing Colorado Potato Beetle | Entomology Today

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A study evaluating one of the first insecticides developed to use RNA interference as a mode of action finds significant effects on mobility, pupation, and reproduction of the target insect, the Colorado potato beetle.

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An Entomologist’s Guide to the Convention on Biological Diversity | Entomology Today

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Entomologist Emily Sandall, Ph.D., reports her perspectives from attending the most recent meeting of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. It's a critical international effort to preserve Earth's biodiversity, but insects at times take a backseat to other fauna in the negotiations.

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Spider Solidarity: Scientists Discover New Species With Unprecedented Social Behavior | Entomology Today

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Sociality in spiders is quite rare, but a new species found in Madagascar takes it a step further. Isoxya manangona kite spiders build large colonies of webs, all connected by a central silk line where multiple adult males gather harmoniously. Researchers suggest the males could be "lekking," gathering in a group to perform mating displays for females, a behavior never before seen in spiders.

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Plant Pollen May Be Important Food Source for Some Mosquitoes in U.S. | Entomology Today

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Larvae of the southern house mosquito (Culex quinquefasciatus) fared well in a new study when fed a diet of corn or pine pollen. The findings suggest corn pollen could help the species— key vector of West Nile virus in the U.S.—thrive in habitats near agricultural areas.

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Designing, Producing, and Communicating Effective Scientific Graphical Abstracts | Entomology Today

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Graphical abstracts are increasingly vital to research publishing, but many entomologists have not been trained in creating them. Learn the fundamentals of graphical abstracts and get some advice from experts in this recap of a workshop hosted by the ESA Student Affairs Committee at the 2022 Joint Annual Meeting of ESA, ESC, and ESBC.

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In Defense of Clothes Moths, Marvels of Evolution | Entomology Today

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Though they cause headaches for dining on your wardrobe, webbing clothes moths are unique creatures with fascinating specialized biology. They can eat hair and metabolize their own water. They can chew through plastic and digest mercury. And that's not all. An entomologist studying these moths makes a case for appreciating their evolutionary feats.

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Fungus Species Found Infecting Moth Pest of Chinese Fir Trees | Entomology Today

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Several species of fungus in the genus Fusarium are known to infect insects, while some also infect plants. Researchers in China report the first observation of the species Fusarium concentricum infecting an insect—in this case a key moth pest of Chinese fir trees.

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Is This Non-Native Mason Bee an Invasive Species? | Entomology Today

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What makes a non-native species "invasive"? And can a typically beneficial insect like a bee be deemed a threat to native species? Researchers explore these questions in a new review of the expansion of the non-native mason bee Osmia taurus since its U.S. arrival in 2002 and its effects on closely related native species.

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Brown Widow Spiders’ Aggression Likely Driver of Black Widow Decline | Entomology Today

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Black widow spiders have earned a fearsome reputation for their venomous bite. But in parts of the southern U.S. these spiders have much to fear themselves—from spider relatives who really don't like their company. A new study shows that brown widow spiders, of a species in the same genus, have a striking propensity to seek out and kill nearby black widows.

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