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This edited book aims to bring out a comprehensive collection of information on tree biology, breeding, improvement, genetics, and biotechnology. The focus of this book is to address the status of tree biology research through biotechnological, physiological, pathological, and entomological aspects. Trees are dominant and perennial species found in several ecosystems. They are the only piece of infrastructure that gains value over time. Their economic relevance is well known in terms of the production of food, feed, fodder, fuel, timber, and other products. Trees are well-known habitats for different organisms. They also deliver various ecosystem services, including temperature regulation, mitigation of soil erosion, and managing and filtering rainwater. Tree species are versatile and are capable of providing livelihood security to people, besides several other advantages. In the era of high population growth and increasing pressure on agricultural systems, efficient management of tree resources is the need of the time. Therefore, it is essential to understand tree biology, breeding, and improvement. This book comprises information on various aspects of tree breeding, biology, genetics, and research in the improvement of tree species. Applications of tissue culture, biotechnological approaches, tree health management, insect pest management, and nutrient recycling have been covered in the book, along with some chapters on case studies from Rajasthan and Africa. This book is a useful read for agricultural students, researchers, teachers, and professionals interested in the fields of agroforestry, horticulture, silviculture, and tree improvement.

Insect and disease issues are often specific to the Mediterranean forest systems rather than shared with the temperate forests. In addition to the specific native insects and diseases, the forests are subject to the invasion of exotic species. The forests are also at risk from high degrees of human activity, including changing patterns of forest fires, land management activities, intensive plantation forestry using introduced timber species from other Mediterranean climate zones, and atmospheric deposition. Combined with elements of global climate change that may disproportionately affect Mediterranean climate systems, this creates a number of significant management issues that are unique to the Mediterranean forests. It is our goal that the information contained in this volume will contribute to understanding the unique aspects of Mediterranean forest systems and to protecting these critical resources.

This book addresses the challenges and opportunities faced by the world's forests posed by climate change, conservation objectives, and sustainable development needs including bioenergy, outlining the research and other efforts that are needed to understand these issues, along with the options and difficulties for dealing with them. It contains sections on sustainable forestry & conservation; forest resources worldwide; forests, forestry and climate change; the economics of forestry; tree breeding & commercial forestry; biotechnological approaches; genomic studies with forest trees; bio-energy, lignin & wood; and forest science, including ecological studies. The chapters are contributed by prominent organisations or individuals with an established record of achievement in these areas, and present their ideas on these topics with the aim of providing a ready source of information and guidance on these topics for politicians, policy makers and scientists for many years to come.

Microbiology may be described as one of the younger sciences with its history, as a precise subject, only dating as far back as Pasteur in the mid 1800s and his revelation both of the role of microorganisms in nature and their importance to human welfare. Medical scientists rapidly took up the challenge, with their area of microbiology flourishing and expanding almost in complete isolation from the rest of biology. We now know, of course, that microorganisms have always played an important, if not essential role, in the biosphere with fermented foods and beverages, plant and animal diseases and nutrient cycling foremost in their sphere of activities. Within the last twenty years, microbiology has received two enormous boosts with the developments in microbial genetics and genetic engineering probably being the most influential, and the greater awareness of pollution and environmental sustainability following a close second. In 1990, your editor had the privilege and pleasure of being elected as President of The Association of Applied Biologists in the United King­ dom and, as the topic for his three-day Presidential Conference, chose'The exploitation of microorganisms in applied biology'. This meeting stimu­ lated great interest in a wide range of subject areas, from weed control to nematology, from plant breeding to plant pathology, from mushrooms to mycorrhiza. The proceedings of this meeting were published in Aspects of Applied Biology, No. 24, 1990.

This book arises out of a symposium on forest and woodland terrestrial ecosystems which was held in Florence on 20-24th May 1991. It was organised jointly by the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) and the European Science Foundation (ESF) in association with the Italian Research Council (CNR). The symposium brQughUogether most -Of the internationally recognized groups working on forest ecosystems including biologists, botanists, ecologists, soil scientists, modellers, foresters and policy makers. All the CEC countries were represented. In addition, there was a broad audience from Eastern and Central Europe and from EFfA countries. Outstanding experts from outside Europe (US, Australia, Canada, Japan, China, etc.) were also present. In total, the symposium was attended by more than 500 participants. The structure of this book reflects the main elements of the meeting. As such it includes three main sections. The first consists of six major state-of-the-art reviews corresponding to the six plenary sessions, each followed by a discussion which has been summarized by rapporteurs. The reviews were prepared to assess critically the state of current knowledge in ecosystem research and to provide a scientific basis both for policy decisions and for further research.

In spite of all the efforts made in fire prevention and suppression, every year about 45 000 forest fires occur in Europe, burning ca. 0.5 million hectares of forests and other rural lands. The management of these burned forests has been given much less attention than fire prevention or fire suppression issues, but the post-fire management of burned areas raises strong concerns (economic and social impacts, soil erosion and water quality, biodiversity loss, forest restoration). Although there are a few publications which address post-fire management, the focus of these has been either on general approaches to restoration or specific topics such as preventing post-fire soil erosion. This book is about the post-fire management of fire-prone forest types in southern Europe. It provides the first comprehensive overview of the topic, ranging from stand-level to landscape-level management, and from emergency actions to long-term restoration approaches.

Following the demise of the MAFF's Perma­ some leaflets to fill outstanding gaps. The nent Leaflet Series in 1985, it was suggested content of three leaflets has been altered more that the final editions of the crop pest advisory extensively. Thus, Chafer grubs (Chapter 32) leaflets should be produced in a bound volume now incorporates material from Leaflet 449, for the benefit of future agricultural entomolo­ Japanese beetle, which has been omitted from gists and others interested in crop pests. This this collection as this pest has not become idea originated outside MAFF but was enthusi­ established in Europe. Nematodes on straw­ astically supported by entomologists in MAFF, berry (Chapter 81) has been enlarged by the the agricultural research institutes and the uni­ addition of further information on free-living versities. As editor of the leaflets from 1965 nematodes from the plant pathology leaflet on until 1985, I offered to undertake the task of Soil-borne virus diseases of fruit plants. The compilation and editing, and this offer was joint plant pathology/entomology leaflet on accepted. Raspberry cane blight and midge blight has To prevent the book from becoming quickly been included, but the information has been outdated, the sections on control measures mainly restricted to raspberry cane midge and have been redrafted by the Advisory Entomol­ the title changed accordingly.

For more than 20 years insect/plant relations have been a focus for studies in ecology and evolution. The importance of insects as crop pests, and the great potential of insects for the biological control of weeds, have provided further impetus for work in this area. All this attention has resulted in books on various aspects of the topic, and reviews and research papers are abundant. So why write another book? It seems to us that, in the midst of all this activity, behavior has been neglected. We do not mean to suggest that there have not been admirable papers on behavior. The fact that we can write this book attests to that. But we feel that, too often, behavior is relegated to a back seat. In comparison to the major ecological and evolutionary questions, it may seem trivial. Yet the whole process of host-plant selection and host-plant specificity amongst insects depends on behavior, and selection for behavioral differences must be a prime factor in the evolution of host-plant specificity. In writing this book, we hope to draw attention to this central role of behavior and, hopefully, encourage a few students to attack some of the very difficult questions that remain unanswered.

seem as appropriate now as the original balance was when Dr A. D. Imms'textbook was first published over fifty years ago. There are 35 new figures, all based on published illustrations, the sources of which are acknowledged in the captions. We are grateful to the authors concerned and also to Miss K. Priest of Messrs Chapman & Hall, who saved us from many errors and omissions, and to Mrs R. G. Davies for substantial help in preparing the bibliographies and checking references. London O. W. R. R. G. D. May 1976 Part III THEORDERSOFINSECTS THE CLASSIFICATION AND PHYLOGENY OF INSECTS The classification of insects has passed through many changes and with the growth of detailed knowledge an increasing number of orders has come to be recognized. Handlirsch (1908) and Wilson and Doner (1937) have reviewed the earlier attempts at classification, among which the schemes of Brauer (1885), Sharp (1899) and Borner (1904) did much to define the more distinctive recent orders. In 1908 Handlirsch published a more revolutionary system, incorporating recent and fossil forms, which gave the Collembola, Thysanura and Diplura the status of three independent Arthropodan classes and considered as separate orders such groups as the Sialoidea, Raphidioidea, Heteroptera and Homoptera. He also split up the old order Orthoptera, gave its components ordinal rank and regrouped them with some of the other orders into a subclass Orthopteroidea and another subclass Blattaeformia.

The connection between the study of insects. their development. behaviour and biochemistry. and chromatography is perhaps not immediately obvious. However. this connection exists and it is of fundamental importance to our understanding of many areas of insect physiology. Insects range in size from small to minute and consequently the amounts of hormones or pheromones they produce are equally minute. Ultimately any attempt at understanding the processes which control development, social behaviour or the biochemistry of insects requires some means of isolating the tiny quantities of the hormones and pheromones responsible in sufficient quantity and purity for identification. The ability to devise novel techniques to separate these materials from frequently complex biological mixtures including precursors and metabolites and to devise detection systems for them is vital. Methods for the quantification of these substances at different stages in the life cycle. or in response to environmental change or stress. are then essential. Chromatography. both as a means for isolation and as a method for quantitative analysis. has'been an essential tool in these studies. This volume represents the outcome of a joint international symposium organized by the Chromatographic and Royal Entomological Societies at the University of Reading between the 21st and 23rd March 1989 aimed specifically at discussing the chromatography and isolation of insect hormones. pheromones and related substances.The papers presented at that meeting. and collected together here. covered many aspects of the subject including the chromatography of juvenile hormones. ecdysteroids. peptides. pheromones and semio­ chemicals.