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What exactly is our relationship with insects? Are they more beneficial or harmful? What role do they play in the world? What are the effects of climate change: Will the number of insects continue to increase? This book discusses the beneficial and harmful effects of insects and explains their development and significance for biodiversity. This second, fully reviewed and enlarged, edition provides new insights, especially about the value of specific insect species that are generally seen as pests (e.g. ants and moths), as well as an extended chapter on the development of insects and especially their decline in different regions in the world, the industrialized countries in particular. Numerous info graphics show connections between changes in the environment due to human expansion and the number of insects and species. Studies from the US, Canada, Asia, Africa, Europe and Switzerland are used to point out the dramatic reduction of biodiversity. New tables illustrate these developments. The glossary as well as the insects index is extended, the text, tables, pictures and graphs provide even more well-rounded image. Readers will find the argumentation even more clearly and detailed.

CHOICE Highly recommended 2020Insects are key components of life on our planet, and their presence is essential for maintaining balanced terrestrial ecosystems. Without insects humans would struggle to survive, and on a world scale food production would be severely compromised. Many plants and animals depend directly or indirectly on insects for their very survival, and this is particularly so in the case of insectivorous birds and other such creatures. The beneficial role of insects is often overlooked or misunderstood, and in farming circles their very presence on crops is often seen to be unwelcome. In reality, however, many insects are genuinely beneficial, as in the case of parasitic and predacious species. The use of chemical pesticides to control crop pests is becoming more tightly regulated and environmentally undesirable, and low-input farming, in which natural enemies of pests are encouraged to survive or increase, is becoming far more prevalent. Accordingly, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Integrated Pest Management (ICM) strategies are increasingly being developed, advocated and adopted.Features: Highlights information on many groups of insects and mites that act as natural enemies or biological control agents of phytophagous insects and mites, including plant pests. Profusely illustrated with high-quality colour photographs. Focuses mainly on insects and mites as natural enemies of plant pests, including parasitic and predacious species that have been accidentally or deliberately introduced in classical biological control programmes. Reviews the role of phytophagous European insects and mites in controlling or managing European plants that have become invasive weeds in other parts of the world, notably North America, Australia and New Zealand.

Overviews of biochemical, genetic, and molecular perspectives of plant-insect interactions with added emphasis on bioinformatic, genomic, and transcriptome analysis are comprehensively treated in this book. It presents the agro-ecological and evolutionary aspects of plant-insect interactions with an exclusive focus on the climate change effect on the resetting of plant-insect interactions. A valuable resource for biotechnologists, entomologists, agricultural scientists, and policymakers, the book includes theoretical aspects as a base toward real-world applications of holistic integrated pest management in agro-ecosystems.

This book presents a 360-degree picture of the world of insects and explores how their existence affects our lives: the'good, bad, and ugly'aspects of their interactions with humankind. It provides a lucid introductory text for beginning undergraduate students in the life sciences, particularly those pursuing beginner courses in entomology, agriculture, and botany.

This book discusses the beneficial and harmful effects of insects and explains their development and significance for biodiversity.Threatening pests or threatened beneficials? Biting midges are wonderful insects. The animals are so tiny and uniquely shaped that they are particularly good at pollinating the small and tight flowers of the cocoa tree. Without them, there would be much less chocolate. We associate other insects more with the damage that they cause. Mosquitoes and wasps bite us. Moth larvae damage textiles and contaminate foods. Ants undermine our paths and flies are just a pain.But what exactly is our relationship with insects? Are they more beneficial or harmful? What role do they play in the world? What are the effects of climate change: Will the number of insects continue to increase?

Written by a globally prominent entomologist, Agricultural Acarology: Introduction to Integrated Mite Management provides tools for developing integrated mite management programs for agriculture, including management of plant-feeding mites, mites attacking bees and livestock, and stored products. Emphasizing the biology, ecology, behavior, and diverse methods of controlling mites, this book provides an overview of the management of agriculturally important mites using all available Integrated Pest Management (IPM) tools, including biological control, cultural practices, host-plant resistance, and pesticides.Agricultural Acarology prepares agricultural managers to identify, manage, and contribute to the field of integrated mite management. An accompanying downloadable resource contains numerous color photographs of mites and the damage they cause, and PDFs of key publications.

Heteropterans regularly cause a wide variety and large number of problems for humans - at times on a catastrophic scale. The 37,000 described species of this suborder including many pests, disease transmitters, and nuisances exist worldwide, inflicting damage on crops, forests, orchards, and human life. Inspired by the widespread economic impact of