xiPrelude
New Horizons in Insect Science: Towards Sustainable Pest
Management: An Introduction
A. K. Chakravarthy
This book deals with the kind of topics compiled on insect science and the way
they have been arranged. These topics were presented at the International Confer-
ence on Insect Science, 14−17 February 2013 at Bengaluru, South India. The book
addresses the topics of current and continuing significance. Also included in this
book are areas in which effects of IPM on the environment, ecosystems and soci-
ety are highly impacted. Emphasis is given to the role of integrated pest manage-
ment (IPM), and new and evolving chemical and non-chemical pest suppression
tools to reduce crop losses due to insect pests. An analysis is made of the current
environmental problems associated with pesticide use and new insecticide mol-
ecules. The major objective of new branches in insect science has been to develop
systems of pest management that optimize cost: benefit ratios on a long-term and
sustainable basis for the farmer and the society at large. Thus, topics on insect
science included in this book will be of tremendous benefit to farmers, policy
makers, environmentalists, entomologists and agricultural scientists so that these
could be further integrated into the entire crop production process.
The select topics have been grouped under seven broad sections. Part I
includes Insect Taxonomy. As a group, insects are the most speciose of all
living beings on earth. So, to identify and characterize them is the first and
foremost important step. Sreedevi and others have discussed about the use of
new integrative taxonomic approaches in precisely identifying and delineat-
ing species using molecular tools like DNA bar coding. Similarly, Jalali and
others have shown ways to use DNA bar coding for identifications of insects
important to agriculture, horticulture and forestry ecosystems.
Part II includes seven chapters on insect physiology. Shama Singh from
New Delhi investigated the effects of changes in body size and colour on
mating success of Drosophila. Dark strain showed significantly higher
number of mated pairs and longer copulation duration as compared to the
light strain. The longevity of big female Trichopria sp. (a tiny wasp) was
significantly longer than small ones. Similarly, big females of the wasp pro-
duced significantly more progeny with higher sex ratio compared to small
females, according to Veena and Manjunath. Vidhu and Evans from Kerala,
India highlighted the presence of different forms and levels of formic acid in