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Insects are the most diverse group of animals on Earth, but their small size and high diversity have always made them challenging to study. Recent technological advances have the potential to revolutionise insect ecology and monitoring. We describe the state of the art of four technologies (computer vision, acoustic monitoring, radar, and molecular methods), and assess their advantages, current limitations, and future potential. We discuss how these technologies can adhere to modern standards of data curation and transparency, their implications for citizen science, and their potential for integration among different monitoring programmes and technologies. We argue that they provide unprecedented possibilities for insect ecology and monitoring, but it will be important to foster international standards via collaboration.

The use of functional information in the form of species traits plays an important role in explaining biodiversity patterns and responses to environmental changes. Although relationships between species composition, their traits, and the environment have been extensively studied on a case-by-case basis, results are variable, and it remains unclear how generalizable these relationships are across ecosystems, taxa and spatial scales. To address this gap, we collated 80 datasets from trait-based studies into a global database for metaCommunity Ecology: Species, Traits, Environment and Space; “CESTES”. Each dataset includes four matrices: species community abundances or presences/absences across multiple sites, species trait information, environmental variables and spatial coordinates of the sampling sites. The CESTES database is a live database: it will be maintained and expanded in the future as new datasets become available. By its harmonized structure, and the diversity of ecosystem types, taxonomic groups, and spatial scales it covers, the CESTES database provides an important opportunity for synthetic trait-based research in community ecology.

Partial migration, where a proportion of a population migrates, while other individuals remain resident, is widespread across most migratory lineages. However, the mechanisms driving individual differences in migratory tendency are still relatively poorly understood in most taxa, but may be influenced by morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits, controlled by phenotypic plasticity and the underlying genetic complex. Insects differ from vertebrates in that partial migration is often associated with pronounced morphological differences between migratory and resident phenotypes, such as wing presence or length. In contrast, the mechanisms influencing migratory tendency in wing-monomorphic insects is less clear. Insects are the most abundant and diverse group of terrestrial migrants, with trillions of animals moving across the globe annually, and understanding the drivers and extent of partial migration across populations will have considerable implications for ecosystem services, such as the management of pests and the conservation of threatened or beneficial species. Here, we present an overview of our current but incomplete knowledge of partial migration in insects. We discuss the factors that lead to the maintenance of partial migration within populations, and the conditions that may influence individual decision making, particularly in the context of individual fitness and reproductive tradeoffs. Finally, we highlight current gaps in knowledge and areas of future research that should prove fruitful in understanding the ecological and evolutionary drivers, and consequences of partial migration in insects.

Radar is at the forefront for the study of broad-scale aerial movements of birds, bats and insects and related issues in biological conservation. Radar techniques are especially useful for investigating species which fly at high altitudes, in darkness, or which are too small for applying electronic tags. Here, we present an overview of radar applications in biological conservation and highlight its future possibilities. Depending on the type of radar, information can be gathered on local- to continental-scale movements of airborne organisms and their behaviour. Such data can quantify flyway usage, biomass and nutrient transport (bioflow), population sizes, dynamics and distributions, times and dimensions of movements, areas and times of mass emergence and swarming, habitat use and activity ranges. Radar also captures behavioural responses to anthropogenic disturbances, artificial light and man-made structures. Weather surveillance and other long-range radar networks allow spatially broad overviews of important stopover areas, songbird mass roosts and emergences from bat caves. Mobile radars, including repurposed marine radars and commercially dedicated ‘bird radars’, offer the ability to track and monitor the local movements of individuals or groups of flying animals. Harmonic radar techniques have been used for tracking short-range movements of insects and other small animals of conservation interest. However, a major challenge in aeroecology is determining the taxonomic identity of the targets, which often requires ancillary data obtained from other methods. Radar data have become a global source of information on ecosystem structure, composition, services and function and will play an increasing role in the monitoring and conservation of flying animals and threatened habitats worldwide.

The use of radar as an observational tool in entomological studies has a long history, and ongoing advances in operational radar networks and radio‐frequency technology hold promise for advances in applications such as aerial insect detection, identification and quantification. Realizing this potential requires increasingly sophisticated characterizations of radio‐scattering signatures for a broad set of insect taxa, including variability in probing radar wavelength, polarization and aspect angle. Although this task has traditionally been approached through laboratory measurement of radar cross‐sections, the effort required to create a comprehensive specimen‐based library of scattering signatures would be prohibitive. As an alternative, we investigate the performance of electromagnetic modelling for creating such a database, focusing particularly on the influence of geometric and dielectric model properties on the accuracy of synthesized scattering signatures. We use a published database which includes geometric size measurements and laboratory‐measured radar cross‐sections for 194 insect specimens. The insect anatomy and body composition were emulated using six different models, and radar cross‐sections of each model were obtained through electromagnetic modelling and compared with the original laboratory measurements. Of the models tested, the prolate ellipsoid with an internal dielectric of homogenized chitin and hemolymph mixture best replicates the measurements, providing an appropriate technique for further modelling efforts.

Parasitoid wasps occur in diverse communities, with the adults of most species sourcing carbohydrates from nectar or honeydew. However, the role of niche partitioning of nectar resources in maintaining diverse communities of parasitoid Hymenoptera is poorly known. To elucidate patterns of nectar resource use and test whether species partition resources, we investigated pollen loads in a community of parasitoid thynnine wasps in the biodiversity hotspot of southwestern Australia. In total, 304 thynnine wasps from 28 species were captured. Eighteen of these species are undescribed, highlighting the high diversity of unrecognized species in southwestern Australia. Pollen loads were detected on 111 individuals representing 19 species. Six pollen types were identified. All species that carried pollen primarily visited two tree species, Agonis flexuosa and Eucalyptus marginata, in the Myrtaceae. The other four pollen types were only recorded from single wasps. There was no evidence of nectar-resource partitioning. This may be due to these Myrtaceae producing abundant, open-faced flowers. Wasp species that were not recorded carrying pollen may utilise other carbohydrate sources, such as homopoteran honeydew. Niche partitioning is predicted to occur during the parasitoid larval phase of the life cycle. This study highlights the importance of nectariferous Myrtaceae in supporting diverse wasp communities. Further, two species of nectar-foraging wasps collected here are involved in the pollination of rare orchid species. Hence, conservation and management of habitats that support floriferous Myrtaceae are important for both the maintenance of diverse wasp communities, and the plants they pollinate.

Pollinator behaviour directly affects patterns of pollen movement and outcrossing rates in plants. In orchids pollinated by sexual deception of insects, patterns of pollen movement are primarily determined by the mate-searching behaviour of the deceived males. Here, using a capture-mark-recapture study (CMR) and dietary analysis, we compare mate-searching behaviour in relation to local abundance of two pollinator species and explore the implications for pollen movement in sexually deceptive Drakaea (Orchidaceae). Drakaea are pollinated solely by the sexual deception of male thynnine wasps. The rare Drakaea elastica and widespread D. livida occur sympatrically and are pollinated by the rare but locally common Zaspilothynnus gilesi, and the widespread and abundant Z. nigripes, respectively. Local abundance was significantly different with Z. nigripes twice as abundant as Z. gilesi. For the 653 marked wasps, there was no significant difference in median movement distance between Z. gilesi and Z. nigripes. However, the maximum movement distance was twice as high for Z. gilesi (556 m) compared with Z. nigripes (267 m). This is up to three times greater than previously reported for thynnines in CMR studies. Recapture rates were six times higher in Z. gilesi (57%) compared to Z. nigripes (9%). Pollen loads and wasp longevity were similar, suggesting that this difference in recapture rate arises due to differences in the number of males moving at a scale >500 m rather than through diet or mortality. Differences in the frequency of longer movements may arise due to variation in the spatial distribution of the wingless females. We predict that pollen movement will largely be restricted to within populations of Drakaea (<500 m), with few movements between populations (>500 m).