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Biological control is a key component of Integrated Pest Management, however, the use of green lacewings as a biocontrol agent has not received much attention in Pakistan, although Chrysoperla carnea, a generalist predator against a variety of soft-sucking pests, has received much attention in Pakistan. Predatory insects always come out on top when it comes to biological pest control. In addition to minimizing losses caused by pests, applying biocontrol agents helps reduce the ecosystem from being affected by excessive chemical use. The present study proposes a new combination and confirms the newly recorded potential predatory species of green lacewings, Apertochrysa smitzi (Navas, 1914) comb. nov., found in Pakistan, belongs to the Apertochrysa venosa group based on male genitalia having gonocristae, which is only present in the A. venosa group. The diagnostic features of adult, as well as the photographs of dorsal habitus and genitalia, both male and female wings, and the complete life stages of A smitzi are provided. We reared the larvae and adults of A smitzi on the larval and nymphal stages of Sitotroga cerealella (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) and Pyrilla perpusilla (Hemiptera: Lophopidae), respectively, under controlled conditions. Apertochrysa smitzi is active most of the year and collected from sugarcane, wheat, and cotton crops from February to March, September and October. Both the larval stages and adults of A. smitzi were reared and released as a pest management tactic against various harmful sucking sugarcane insects for the first time in the Sindh province of Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem services (ES) provided by dryland ecosystems store nearly half and one‐third of the Earth's terrestrial biomass and biodiversity, respectively. Pakistan is a typical dryland region with significant land degradation and dramatic changes in ES in recent decades, which has not been sufficiently investigated. This study explored the spatiotemporal variations in ecosystem service values (ESV) over Pakistan (2001–2018) by combining land use/cover data, economic modeling, and hotspot analysis. From the achieved results, the total ESV indicated an improvement in ES before 2012 and then showed a declining trend. The largest contribution was attributed to the increase in forest/shrubland by 16.17% (2001–2006) and 10.36% (2006–2012). However, the ESV decreased to 7.76% from 2012 to 2018, which was mainly attributed to the decrease in cropland and grassland. Heterogeneous changes were observed in ESV. The hotspot of ESV change (approximately an area of 32,578 km2) was mainly located in the southern and southeastern parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), the northeastern part of Balochistan and the central and western parts of Sindh Province. The cold spot (approximately an area of 24,491 km2) showed a distribution in the northern part of KPK and Gilgit Baltistan, northeastern Punjab, coastal regions, and southeastern Sindh Province. We also found that although the total ESV and gross domestic product (GDP) indicated growth, the proportion of ESV from the total ESV and GDP (%ESV) exhibited a negative trend. The Provinces of Punjab and Balochistan retained the highest value of %ESV, while Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan were much lower. These results reflected the spatial imbalance of ecosystem protection and economic development in Pakistan. We recommend that necessary actions for conserving ES are important to strengthen ecological conservation in Pakistan. Additionally, further interdisciplinary research is needed to fully explore synergies in conserving ES and economical conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]