Diseases transmitted by insects continue to have a major impact on human populations. Malaria, dengue, onchocerciasis, sleeping sickness and leishmaniasis all adversely affect man. Malaria is one of the most important causes of child mortality and reduces economic development in many countries, with agricultural productivity often greatly reduced, as many vectors are active in the wet season favourable for crop production. Vector control is crucial to reduce the extent to which drugs are needed to treat the diseases, as the parasite can become resistant, or the drugs are often too expensive for those living in rural areas and urban slums most affected by these diseases.

Chemical control of vectors is often the only method that can reduce vector populations in a disease epidemic, but with vectors developing resistance to insecticides, there is increasing awareness that a single control method is often insufficient and also that chemical control must be integrated where possible with other control measures.

In "Integrated Vector Management," Graham Matthews covers the main chemical methods of vector control, including the use of indoor residual spraying, space treatments, the use of treated bed nets and larviciding, but also stresses the importance of drainage schemes and improvement of houses to prevent access of indoor vectors, techniques that have largely been responsible for reducing the risk of vector borne diseases in Europe and the USA. This book combines practical information from successful vector control programmes, including early use of DDT, and recent research into a vital resource for all those now involved in combating insect vector borne diseases.

"Integrated Vector Management" is an essential tool, not only for medical entomologists and those directly involved in government health departments, but also for all those who provide the skills and management needed to operate successful area-wide vector management programmes. Libraries in all universities and research establishments world-wide, where biological sciences, medicine and agriculture are studied and taught should have multiple copies of this important book.

Written in easy to follow language, the book presents cutting-edge agriculturally relevant plant biotechnologies and applications in a manner that is accessible to all. This book updates and introduces the scope and method of plant biotechnologies and molecular breeding within the context of environmental analysis and assessment, a diminishing supply of productive arable land, scarce water resources and climate change. New plant breeding techniques including CRISPR-cas system are now tools to meet these challenges both in developed countries and in developing countries. Ethical issues, intellectual property rights, regulation policies in various countries related to agricultural biotechnology are examined. The rapid developments in plant biotechnology are explained to a large audience with relevant examples. New varieties of crops can be adapted to new climatic conditions in order to reduce pest-associated losses and the adverse abiotic effects

Plant bugs -- Miridae, the largest family of the Heteroptera, or true bugs -- are globally important pests of crops such as alfalfa, apple, cocoa, cotton, sorghum, and tea. Some also are predators of crop pests and have been used successfully in biological control. Certain omnivorous plant bugs have been considered both harmful pests and beneficial natural enemies of pests on the same crop, depending on environmental conditions or the perspective of an observer.

As high-yielding varieties that lack pest resistance are planted, mirids are likely to become even more important crop pests. They also threaten crops as insecticide resistance in the family increases, and as the spread of transgenic crops alters their populations. Predatory mirids are increasingly used as biocontrol agents, especially of greenhouse pests such as thrips and whiteflies. Mirids provide abundant opportunities for research on food webs, intraguild predation, and competition.

Recent worldwide activity in mirid systematics and biology testifies to increasing interest in plant bugs. The first thorough review and synthesis of biological studies of mirids in more than 60 years, Biology of the Plant Bugs will serve as the basic reference for anyone studying these insects as pests, beneficial IPM predators, or as models for ecological research.

This book reviews the latest research on bioproducts from various economically important insects, such as silkworms, honey bees, lac and drosophila, and termites, and discusses their general, biomedical and industrial applications in detail. It includes chapters focusing on insects as a food source, probiotics, silk-based biomaterials, insect pheromones, insects as biomedicine source, pupa oil chemistry, non-protein compounds from Lepidopteran insects, insect chitin and chitosan, polyphenols and flavonoids. Model insects like Bombyx mori or bees were domesticated in Asian countries thousands of years ago. Over time, natural products from these animals became industrialized and today they attracting increasing attention thanks to their sustainability and their manifold applications in agriculture and biomedicine. The book is intended for entomologists, material scientists, natural product researchers and biotechnologists.

The California Tortoiseshell, West Coast Lady, Red Admiral, and Golden Oak Hairstreak are just a few of the many butterfly species found in the floristically rich San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley regions. This guide, written for both beginning and experienced butterfly watchers by one of the nation's best-known professional lepidopterists, provides thorough, up-to-date information on all of the butterfly species found in this diverse and accessible region. Written in lively prose, it discusses the natural history and conservation status for these butterflies and at the same time provides an integrated view of butterfly biology based on studies conducted in northern California and around the world. Compact enough for use in the field, the guide also includes tips on butterfly watching, photography, gardening, and more. It discusses and identifies more than 130 species. Species accounts include information on identifying butterflies through behavior, markings, and host plants. Beautiful full-color plates illustrate top and bottom views of wings for easier identification. It also includes a species checklist and a glossary.

This book compiles for the first time all the current information on the electronic monitoring of the feeding behavior of phytophagous true bugs. It includes state-of-the-art illustrations of feeding sites on the various plant structures, and examines how the different feeding strategies are related to the variable waveforms generated using the electropenetrography (EPG) technique. Further, the book describes the mouthparts and modes of feeding and discusses the physical and chemical damage resulting from feeding activities. Covering in detail all EPG studies developed and conducted using true bugs published to date, it explores the use of electronic monitoring of feeding coupled with histological analyses to improve strategies to control true bugs, from traditional chemical methods to gene silencing (RNAi).

This textbook provides the first overview of plant-animal interactions for twenty years focused on the needs of students and professors. It discusses a range of topics from the basic structures of plant-animal interactions to their evolutionary implications in producing and maintaining biodiversity. It also highlights innovative aspects of plant-animal interactions that can represent highly productive research avenues, making it a valuable resource for anyone interested in a future career in ecology. Written by leading experts, and employing a variety of didactic tools, the book is useful for students and teachers involved in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses addressing areas such as herbivory, trophic relationships, plant defense, pollination and biodiversity.

This book is the first to integrate biological control into a conceptual framework - ecostacking - uniting all aspects of biological control and ecosystem services. In 2018 the "First International Congress of Biological Control" was organised and held in Beijing, China. The chapters highlight some of the achievements presented at the congress, worldwide. Of particular significance are the numerous contributions by Chinese researchers illustrating the remarkable progress made on developing and adopting multiple biological control strategies over vast agricultural areas, largely replacing chemical pesticides for sustainable agricultural and horticultural production. In many parts of the world including Europe, fragmented research based on short-term funding has been unable to answer to the needs to develop sustainable long-term solutions to crop protection, while colleagues in China have been successful in implementing programs that exemplify the power of the ecostacking approach. Key contributions by European and US specialists combined with the expertise and experiences by the Chinese contributors comprise the building blocks for the integration of biological control approaches into the overall frame of ecostacking. This book will lead the way to a broader, integrated adoption of biological control techniques in sustainable pest, disease and weed management supporting also the functioning of other key ecosystem services. Chapter 2 of this book isavailable open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com

Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), the spotted wing drosophila (SWD), is the most important pest affecting berry crop production worldwide. The global fresh fruit trade, coupled with the ability of the larvae to hide inside the fruit undetected until after transportation, facilitate their distribution. SWD is native to Asia, but is increasingly found in other regions: occurrences have been recorded in the Americas and Europe, and Africa, and the insects have the potential to adapt and become established in Oceania. Gathering the experiences of leading scientists in the management of D. suzukii around the globe, the book addresses D. suzukii monitoring; biological, chemical and cultural control; sterile insect technique (SIT); integrated pest management (IPM), and other control methods. It also discusses the use of drones, GPS, biotechnology, telemetry and other technological tools to make the management of this pest more efficient and accurate. As such, it is a valuable resource for scientists, professionals and students.

Phylonyms is an implementation of PhyloCode, which is a set of principles, rules, and recommendations governing phylogenetic nomenclature. Nearly 300 clades - lineages of organisms - are defined by reference to hypotheses of phylogenetic history rather than by taxonomic ranks and types. This volume will document the Real World uses of PhyloCode and will govern and apply to the names of clades, while species names will still be governed by traditional codes. Key Features Provides clear regulations for implementing new guidelines for naming lineages of organisms incorporates expressly evolutionary and phylogenetic principles Works with existing codes of nomenclature Eliminates the reliance on rank-based classification in favor of phylogenetic relationships Related Titles: Rieppel, O. Phylogenetic Systematics: Haeckel to Hennig (ISBN 978-1-4987-5488-0) Cantino, P. D. and de Queiroz, K. International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature (PhyloCode) (ISBN 978-1-138-33282-9).