Pest Biological Control: Goals Throughout My Life

This autobiography documents the life and accomplishments of Li Liying. Born into a poor family in China, she eventually became director of Guangdong Entomological Institute. After graduating middle school (1949), she was admitted to the Agronomy Faculty at Beijing Agricultural University but was shortly after redirected by the Chinese Government to Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, Moscow, Russia. The last year of her study at Timiryazev Agricultural Academy was a pivotal experience. She had the opportunity to conduct fieldwork on cotton pest control and became aware of the harmful practice of aerially spraying highly toxic organophosphates with workers present. She decided to dedicate herself to finding safer alternatives and became a leader in the development of mass-rearing techniques for insects beneficial to agriculture. She traveled to laboratories in several foreign countries to foster collaboration and exchange of ideas among colleagues. She is recognized for her service to entomological societies, teaching at universities, and love of entomology.

Vine Weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), Management: Current State and Future Perspectives

Vine weevil, also known as black vine weevil, Otiorhynchus sulcatus, has been one of the most economically important pest species of global horticultural crops for the past five decades. This period has seen many changes in crop protection practices, including wide-scale adoption of biological controls such as entomopathogenic nematodes and fungi in place of conventional synthetic insecticides. Despite the experimental efficacy of these controls, growers continue to report significant crop losses associated with vine weevil infestation. We argue that simply switching from synthetic insecticides to biological controls, rather than using these controls as part of an integrated management program, is a key factor in the continued importance of this pest. An improved understanding of vine weevil biology and ecology is at the center of the development of truly integrated pest management programs. To this end, we identify opportunities created through recent vine weevil research and highlight key knowledge gaps in which further research may contribute to improved future management approaches.

Determinants of Insecticide Resistance Evolution: Comparative Analysis Among Heliothines

It is increasingly clear that pest species vary widely in their propensities to develop insecticide resistance. This review uses a comparative approach to analyze the key pest management practices and ecological and biochemical or genetic characteristics of the target that contribute to this variation. We focus on six heliothine species, three of which, Helicoverpa armigera, Heliothis virescens, and Helicoverpa zea, have developed resistances to many pesticide classes. The three others, Helicoverpa punctigera, Helicoverpa assulta, and Helicoverpa gelotopoeon, also significant pests, have developed resistance to very few pesticide classes. We find that host range and movement between alternate hosts are key ecological traits that influence effective selection intensities for resistance. Operational issues are also critical; area-wide, cross-pesticide management practices that account for these ecological factors are key to reducing selection intensity. Without such management, treatment using broad-spectrum chemicals serves to multiply the effects of host plant preference, preadaptive detoxification ability, and high genetic diversity to create a pesticide treadmill for the three high-propensity species.Without rigorous ongoing management, such a treadmill could still develop for newer, more selective chemistries and insecticidal transgenic crops.

Sequestration of Plant Defense Compounds by Insects: From Mechanisms to Insect–Plant Coevolution

Plant defense compounds play a key role in the evolution of insect–plant associations by selecting for behavioral, morphological, and physiological insect adaptations. Sequestration, the ability of herbivorous insects to accumulate plant defense compounds to gain a fitness advantage, represents a complex syndrome of adaptations that has evolved in all major lineages of herbivorous insects and involves various classes of plant defense compounds. In this article, we review progress in understanding how insects selectively accumulate plant defense metabolites and how the evolution of specific resistance mechanisms to these defense compounds enables sequestration. These mechanistic considerations are further integrated into the concept of insect–plant coevolution. Comparative genome and transcriptome analyses, combined with approaches based on analytical chemistry that are centered in phylogenetic frameworks, will help to reveal adaptations underlying the sequestration syndrome, which is essential to understanding the influence of sequestration on insect–plant coevolution.

Neuroecology of Alcohol Preference in Drosophila

In this review, we highlight sources of alcohols in nature, as well as the behavioral and ecological roles that these fermentation cues play in the short lifespan of Drosophila melanogaster. With a focus on neuroethology, we describe the olfactory detection of alcohol as well as ensuing neural signaling within the brain of the fly. We proceed to explain the plethora of behaviors related to alcohol, including attraction, feeding, and oviposition, as well as general effects on aggression and courtship. All of these behaviors are shaped by physiological state and social contexts. In a comparative perspective, we also discuss inter- and intraspecies differences related to alcohol tolerance and metabolism. Lastly, we provide corollaries with other dipteran and coleopteran insect species that also have olfactory systems attuned to ethanol detection and describe ecological and evolutionary directions for further studies of the natural history of alcohol and the fly.

Defense in Social Insects: Diversity, Division of Labor, and Evolution

All social insects defend their colony from predators, parasites, and pathogens. In Oster and Wilson's classic work, they posed one of the key paradoxes about defense in social insects: Given the universal necessity of defense, why then is there so much diversity in mechanisms? Ecological factors undoubtedly are important: Predation and usurpation have imposed strong selection on eusocial insects, and active defense by colonies is a ubiquitous feature of all social insects. The description of diverse insect groups with castes of sterile workers whose main duty is defense has broadened the purview of social evolution in insects, in particular with respect to caste and behavior. Defense is one of the central axes along which we can begin to organize and understand sociality in insects. With the establishment of social insect models such as the honey bee, new discoveries are emerging regarding the endocrine, neural, and gene regulatory mechanisms underlying defense in social insects. The mechanisms underlying morphological and behavioral defense traits may be shared across diverse groups, providing opportunities for identifying both conserved and novel mechanisms at work. Emerging themes highlight the context dependency of and interaction between factors that regulate defense in social insects.

The Ecological Significance of Aphid Cornicles and Their Secretions

Aphid cornicles are abdominal appendages that secrete an array of volatile and nonvolatile compounds with diverse ecological functions. The emission of alarm pheromones yields altruistic benefits for clone-mates in the aphid colony, which is essentially a superorganism with a collective fate. Secreted droplets also contain unsaturated triglycerides, fast-drying adhesives that can be lethal when smeared on natural enemies but more often impede their foraging efficiency. The longest cornicles have evolved in aphids that feed in exposed locations and are likely used to scent-mark colony intruders. Reduced cornicles are associated with reliance on alternative defenses, such as the secretion of protective waxes or myrmecophily. Root-feeding and gall-forming lifestyles provide protected feeding sites and are associated with an absence of cornicles. In some eusocial gall-formers, soldier morphs become repositories of cornicle secretion used to defend the gall, either as menopausal apterae that defend dispersing alatae or as sterile first instars that dispatch predators with their stylets and use cornicle secretions as a construction material for gall repair. Collectively, the evidence is consistent with an adaptive radiation of derived cornicle functions molded by the ecological lifestyle of the aphid lineage.

The Role of Community Science in Entomology

Community (or citizen) science, the involvement of volunteers in scientific endeavors, has a long history. Over the past few centuries, the contributions of volunteers to our understanding of patterns and processes in entomology has been inspiring. From the collation of large-scale and long-term data sets, which have been instrumental in underpinning our knowledge of the status and trends of many insect groups, to action, including species management, whether for conservation or control, community scientists have played pivotal roles. Contributions, such as pest monitoring by farmers and species discoveries by amateur naturalists, set foundations for the research engaging entomologists today. The next decades will undoubtedly bring new approaches, tools, and technologies to underpin community science. The potential to increase inclusion within community science is providing exciting opportunities within entomology. An increase in the diversity of community scientists, alongside increasing taxonomic and geographic breadth of initiatives, will bring enormous benefits globally for people and nature. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Entomology, Volume 67 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Advances in the Evolution and Ecology of 13- and 17-Year Periodical Cicadas

Apart from model organisms, 13- and 17-year periodical cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Magicicada) are among the most studied insects in evolution and ecology. They are attractive subjects because they predictably emerge in large numbers; have a complex biogeography shaped by both spatial and temporal isolation; and include three largely sympatric, parallel species groups that are, in a sense, evolutionary replicates. Magicicada are also relatively easy to capture and manipulate, and their spectacular, synchronized mass emergences facilitate outreach and citizen science opportunities. Since the last major review, studies of Magicicada have revealed insights into reproductive character displacement and the nature of species boundaries, provided additional examples of allochronic speciation, found evidence for repeated and parallel (but noncontemporaneous) evolution of 13- and 17-year life cycles, quantified the amount and direction of gene flow through time, revealed phylogeographic patterning resulting from paleoclimate change, studied the timing of juvenile development, and created hypotheses for the evolution of life-cycle control and the future effects of climate change on Magicicada life cycles. New ecological studies have supported and questioned the role of prime numbers in Magicicada ecology and evolution, found bidirectional shifts in population size over generations, quantified the contribution of Magicicada to nutrient flow in forest ecosystems, and examined behavioral and biochemical interactions between Magicicada and their fungal parasites and bacterial endosymbionts. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Entomology, Volume 67 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.