Crop Insect Research Articles

Impact of intrauterine exposure to the insecticide coragen on the developmental and genetic toxicity in female albino rats

ABSTRACT Coragen 20 SC is a new insecticide that contains the active ingredient chlorantraniliprole, which has been approved for use against insects in many crops due to the presence of insect ryanodine receptors. The present study aims to evaluate the intrauterine exposure to coragen in pregnant rats and their fetuses from 6th to 20th day of gestation. The pregnant dams were orally administrated saline (control), 100 mg/kg (low dose) or 200 mg/kg (high dose) of coragen. The mothers of two treated groups showed teratogenic anomalies such as asymmetrical distribution of fetuses in the two uterine horns, as well as, observed resorption, bleeding in the uteri while, their fetuses had growth retardation, morphological malformations and some skeletal perversions in addition to some dead fetuses were recorded. Furthermore, multiple histopathological changes occurred and a significant DNA damage was induced by coragen in maternal and fetal liver and kidney tissues compared to the control. Gestational coragen treatment resulted in teratogenic and genotoxic effect on pregnant rats and their fetuses. The obtained results in the present study imply that women and their fetuses may have the same risk.

Insect Herbivore Populations and Plant Damage Increase at Higher Elevations.

Simple SummaryIt is vitally important to understand the effects of climate change on insect pest populations and crop losses. Using elevation as a proxy for climate change, a field study was conducted in farmer’s fields in Nepal at various elevations in the Himalayan Mountains. At higher elevations, natural herbivore populations and plant damage from herbivory were significantly higher compared to their low-elevation counterparts. Temperature varied with elevation in the field and significantly affected both insect populations and plant damage. A geographical shift of insect pests towards higher elevations is predicated, so it is important to better understand how biotic and abiotic ecological factors and evolutionary processes will act together to affect ecosystem dynamics to reliably predict future pest problems.Elevation gradients are used as a proxy to simulate climate change effects. A field study was conducted along an elevational gradient in Nepal to understand the effects of abiotic conditions on agriculturally important insect herbivore populations (tobacco caterpillar: Spodoptera litura, tomato fruit worm: Helicoverpa armigera, and South American leaf miner, Tuta absoluta) and herbivory damage on tomatoes. Elevation ranged from 100 m to 1400 m above sea level, representing different climatic zones where tomatoes are grown. Contrary to our hypothesis, natural herbivore populations and herbivory damage significantly increased at higher elevations. Individual insect species responses were variable. Populations of S. litura and T. absoluta increased at higher elevations, whereas the H. armigera population was highest at the mid-elevational range. Temperature variations with elevation also affected insect catch numbers and the level of plant damage from herbivory. In the context of climate warming, our results demonstrate that the interactive effects of elevation and climatic factors (e.g., temperature) will play an important role in determining the changes in insect pest populations and the extent of crop losses.

Annual flower strips and honeybee hive supplementation differently affect arthropod guilds and ecosystem services in a mass-flowering crop

Intensively managed agricultural landscapes have degraded the provisioning of diverse and continuous forage and shelter habitats for arthropods and weakened the delivery of ecosystem services such as insect crop pollination and biological pest control. In response, farmers are incentivised to sow flower strips along field margins to counteract resource bottlenecks. Yet, it is poorly understood how effective this diversification practice is when combined with the supplementation of honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) hives, which is commonly used to boost insect pollination in flowering crops. Honeybees share floral resources with wild pollinators and natural enemies of pests, which could lead to competition for food resources. We sampled pollinators, natural enemies and their pests as well as estimated the benefit of insect pollination in 17 organic faba bean (Vicia faba minor L.) fields in southern Sweden either with or without sown annual flower strips and with or without added honeybee hives. In fields with flower strips, bumblebee (Bombus spp.) densities were redistributed from field edges to interiors but without affecting their overall densities. Flower strips enhanced silver Y moth (Autographa gamma L.) densities and carabid beetle Shannon diversity along the field edge, and overall spider activity density. The supplementation of honeybee hives enhanced honeybee densities, overall ladybird beetle densities, black bean aphid (Aphis fabae Scop.) densities along field edges, but deterred silver Y moths and pushed bumblebees towards the field interior. Bean mass per plant was higher in insect pollinated plants compared with bagged, self-pollinated plants. This insect pollination benefit was independent of honeybee hive supplementation and the flower strip treatment suggesting that faba bean fields were not deficient in pollinator visits. We conclude that flower strips did not provide sufficient floral resources to increase overall wild pollinator densities in faba bean fields. Yet, annual flower strips attracted and facilitated ground-dwelling predators, especially spiders, to faba bean fields, likely by providing beneficial shelter habitats. It is worth noting that 2018, in which we collected our data, was characterised by late frosts in spring followed by an unusually hot and dry summer. While these unforeseen weather conditions together with a relatively small sample size might limit the generalisation of our results, we argue that conducting experiments under such conditions provide insights into the effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes under climate change, especially considering that such weather conditions are becoming increasingly more frequent.

Climate Change Concerns of Saudi Arabian Farmers: The Drivers and Their Role in Perceived Capacity Building Needs for Adaptation

Climate change is a serious threat to the sustainability of global agriculture and food supply that necessitates taking appropriate action for building resilient food production systems and preserving rural economies. In this regard, farmers’ beliefs and concerns about the effects of climate change on agriculture may influence their adoption of adaptation and mitigation practices to address this emerging issue. This work was undertaken to evaluate farmers’ level of concern about climate change in the Jazan province of Saudi Arabia. The study also explored the role of various socioeconomic indicators in shaping farmers’ concerns and highlights various capacity-building initiatives that can be applied at the community level for effective adaptation. Ordered logistic regression was used to study the relationship between farmers’ level of concern and their need for capacity-building initiatives to tackle climate change. Results indicated that insect infestation is the farmers’ top concern, followed by higher crop-diseases incidence and drought. Regression analysis revealed that farmers’ income is a major factor that reduces their concern for insect infestation and crop disease while increases concern for drought. Credit access and information availability have a mixed impact on the farmers’ concern level. Capacity-building initiatives deemed necessary included establishing frequent contacts with extension personnel, timely warnings on droughts and other natural hazards, the training of farmers and extension workers, easy credit facilities, improvement in rural infrastructure and creation of awareness to address specific concern stimulus.

Effects of Imidacloprid on Histology and mRNA Levels of HSP70 and CYP1A Gene to a Standard Non-targeted Test Animal, Cyprinus carpio

Background: Imidacloprid (IMI) belongs to the class of neuro active insecticides, used to control pest and insects in agricultural crops. Reports suggest that IMI has highly toxic consequences on bees, humans and non-targeted aquatic animals. Hence the present study aims to investigate the toxicity effects of commercial-grade Imidacloprid (IMI) (Premise, 30.5%, a.i) using histological and transcriptional changes in heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and cytochrome P4501A(CYP1A) genes in liver and gills of non-targeted aquatic animal, Cyprinus carpio. Methods: Three different sublethal concentrations of IMI (T1=26.04 mg/L, T2= 20.38 mg/L, T3=17.36 mg/L) were selected and common carp fingerlings were exposed for 28 days where histological alterations and expression study of HSP70 and CYP1A in gills and liver of exposed fishes being studied on 7, 14, 21 and 28 days interval using standard procedure. Result: Marked histological alteration like hydropic degeneration and cellular infiltration in liver; telangiectasis in secondary lamellae, epithelial lifting and oedema in gills were recorded. Moreover, significant upregulation of HSP70 and CYP1A gene in the gills and liver in a dose and time dependent manner was observed (P less than 0.05). As a result of the current investigation, it is obvious that IMI could be a possible toxicant that affects fish at the tissue and gene level in dosage and time dependent ways, potentially influencing other physiological processes in the long term.

Strategic thinking and research on crop disease and pestresistance in China

The yield loss of crops per year in the world is 11%–30% due to crop diseases and pests. A large number of chemical pesticides are used to control the spread of infectious crop diseases and pests every year, which not only pollutes the environment, but also seriously threatens food safety and human health. Therefore, the most economical and effective measure to control crop diseases and insects is to develop the resistant varieties by the utilization of resistance genes ( R ), and it is also the preferable way for sustainable development of future agriculture in China. In recent years, much progress has been made in molecular mechanism of plant innate immunity and isolation of many immune receptors including PRRs and NLRs from crops, molecular mechanism of interactions between insects and crops, and identification and cloning of crop insect resistance genes. We review the recent important breakthroughs in plant immunity and broad-spectrum resistance genes isolated in crops, and trade-off between resistance and other agronomic traits. We point out the bottlenecks in crop breeding for disease and insect resistance, and also propose new insights for plant disease and insect resistance research in China in the future.

Some ecological studies on sugar beet crop insects in Kafr El-Sheikh and Nubaria regions

The present studies were conducted at the experimental farms in Agricultural Research Stations of Kafr El-Sheikh and Nubaria regions during two seasons (2019/2020 and 2020/2021) to survey the insect pests and predators that inhibiting sugar beet crop, and to study the seasonal abundance of main insect pests in such crop, and to evaluate the impact of some climatic factors in both regions on the seasonal abundance of some serious insects. Survey studies revealed that sugar beet plants attacked by 45 insect species: 15 of them were accidently visitors. In addition, ten predator species were recorded during the period extended from October until April in both regions during the two seasons. Spodoptera littoralis larvae gave the highest monthly average in December, while Pegomyia mixta larvae recorded the highest monthly average numbers in February and March in Kafr El-Sheikh and Nubaria regions in both seasons. On the other hand, the highest monthly average numbers of Cassida vittata adults were recorded in April in Kafr El-Sheikh region but in February-March in Nubaria region, during both seasons. Scrobipalpa ocellatella appeared with the highest monthly average only in April of both seasons in Kafr El-Sheikh. Whereas, itdoesn’t exist in Nubaria region. Results revealed that effects of the three weather factors (temperature, relative humidity and wind speed) were non-significant during the two seasons in both regions. I could be concluded that sugar beet plants that cultivated Nubaria region received less numbers of insect species than that cultivated in Kafr El-Sheikh region, and given that the sugar beet crop is considered a reclamation crop for new lands, so it must be reassurance in its cultivation due to the lack of insect infestation as well.

Different Host Plants Distinctly Influence the Feeding Ability of the Brown Citrus Aphid Toxoptera citricida.

Simple SummaryThe brown citrus aphid, Toxoptera citricida, is an important pest of citrus and causes serious damage in the main production areas. Host plant resistance is an environmentally friendly method to manage aphid infestations and is becoming increasingly important as aphids develop greater resistance to insecticides. The aim of this study was to assess T. citricida resistance on seven widespread and common hosts using electropenetrography combined with a population development test. We showed that the feeding parameters of the brown citrus aphid differed significantly depending on the host plants. Toxoptera citricida spent more time in the pathway stage and less time in the phloem stage on Eureka, while the opposite was observed on Yuzu and Rough Lemon. Measurements of population development of aphids showed that on the Eureka, aphids developed more slowly. Our data suggest that different host plants distinctly influence the ability of T. citricida to feed. The brown citrus aphid did not prefer to feed on Eureka Lemon compared to the other six host plants.Piercing–sucking insects are important crop pests, and an understanding of their feeding behavior and population development plays a crucial role in studying insect population dynamics and crop resistance. In our study, we examined the probing behavior of the brown citrus aphid, Toxoptera citricida, using electropenetrography and assessed its population development after 8 days on seven host plants: Yuzu, Citrus junos Sieb. ex Tanaka; Rough Lemon, C. jambhiri Lush.; ‘Luofu’ kumquat, Fortunella margarita Swingle; ‘Olinda’ valencia orange, C. sinensis (L.) Osbeck; ‘Yanxiwanlu’ Ponkan, C. reticulata Blanco; ‘Rohde Red’ valencia orange, C. sinensis; and ‘Eureka’ lemon, C. limon (L.) Osbeck. The results demonstrated that probing by the brown citrus aphid differed significantly according to the target hosts. Toxoptera citricida produced significantly more pathway activities on Eureka than on Rough Lemon and Yuzu. Toxoptera citricida spent more time from the first probe to first salivation into phloem sieve elements on Eureka compared to Yuzu. In addition, the total duration of ingestion from sieve cells of each aphid in the phloem-feeding phase was shortest on Eureka, and this was significantly shorter than that on Yuzu, Rough Lemon, Luofu, and Olinda. The population number of T. citricida on Eureka after 8 days was significantly lower than that on the other hosts. Overall, Eureka was found to have obvious resistance to T. citricida, whereas Yuzu and Rough Lemon were susceptible host plants. These results provide a theoretical basis for exploring aphid-resistant fruit tree resources using resistant varieties.

Herbivore-induced volatiles influence moth preference by increasing the β-Ocimene emission of neighbouring tea plants.

Herbivore-induced plant volatiles prime neighbouring plants to respond more strongly to subsequent attacks. However, the key volatiles that trigger this state and their priming mechanisms remain largely unknown. The tea geometrid Ectropis obliqua is one of the most devastating leaf-feeding pests of tea plants. Here, plant-plant communication experiments demonstrated that volatiles emitted from tea plants infested by E. obliqua larvae triggered neighbouring plants to release volatiles that repel E. obliqua adult, especially mated females. Volatile analyses revealed that the quantity of eight volatiles increased dramatically when plants were exposed to volatiles emitted by infested tea plants, including (Z)-3-hexenol, linalool, α-farnesene, β-Ocimene and (E)-4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene (DMNT). The results of behavioural bioassays demonstrated that β-Ocimene strongly repelled mated E. obliqua females. Individual volatile compound exposure experiments revealed that (Z)-3-hexenol, linalool, α-farnesene and DMNT triggered the emission of β-Ocimene from tea plants. Chemical inhibition experiments demonstrated that the emission of β-Ocimene induced by (Z)-3-hexenol, linalool, α-farnesene and DMNT were dependent on Ca2+ and JA signalling. These findings help us to understand how E. obliqua moths respond to volatiles emitted from tea plants and provide new insight into volatile-mediated plant-plant interactions. They have potential significance for the development of novel insect and pest control strategies in crops.

The Intelligent Robot Path Planning and Navigation System Based on Openlayers3 Online Map

The electronic map becomes more and more popular due to its convenience and powerful functions. This paper aims to use map information to build a system for path planning and navigation of an intelligent robot. It can provide a basis for field autonomous identification of crop diseases and insect pests with the robot as the carrier. The open source Openlayers is used as a tool to link online maps. And Dijkstra algorithm is used to obtain the shortest path. And then it can simulate a robot moving along the path by creating a moving point. In addition, it could accomplish a series of fundamental operations of controlling movement and the display of route details. The feasibility of the functions is verified by experiments and it lays a solid foundation for subsequent work.

Culture Degeneration Reduces Sex-Related Gene Expression, Alters Metabolite Production and Reduces Insect Pathogenic Response in Cordyceps militaris

Cordycepsmilitaris is an entomopathogenic ascomycete, known primarily for infecting lepidopteran larval (caterpillars) and pupal hosts. Cordycepin, a secondary metabolite produced by this fungus has anti-inflammatory properties and other pharmacological activities. However, little is known about the biological role of this adenosine derivate and its stabilising compound pentostatin in the context of insect infection the life cycle of C. militaris. During repeated subcultivation under laboratory conditions a degeneration of C. militaris marked by decreasing levels of cordycepin production can occur. Here, using degenerated and parental control strains of an isolate of C. militaris, we found that lower cordycepin production coincides with the decline in the production of various other metabolites as well as the reduced expression of genes related to sexual development. Additionally, infection of Galleria mellonella (greater wax moth) caterpillars indicated that cordycepin inhibits the immune response in host haemocytes. Accordingly, the pathogenic response to the degenerated strain was reduced. These data indicate that there are simultaneous changes in sexual reproduction, secondary metabolite production, insect immunity and infection by C. militaris. This study may have implications for biological control of insect crop pests by fungi.

Taxon-specific temporal shifts in pollinating insects in mass-flowering crops and field margins in Ireland

In intensively cropped agricultural landscapes, the vegetation in edges and hedges (henceforth “field margins”) represents an important semi-natural habitat providing fundamental resources for insect pollinators. We surveyed the pollinating insects associated with two mass-flowering crops, apple and oilseed rape, and compared the insect fauna of the main crop with that in the field margins in the grass-dominated agricultural landscapes of Ireland. Different insect groups responded differently to the presence of the flowering crop, with honey and bumble bees more abundant in crops than margins during crop flowering, but more hover flies and butterflies in margins throughout. The composition of the insect assemblage also shifted over time due to taxon-specific changes in abundance. For example, solitary bees were most abundant early in the season, whereas hover flies peaked, and butterflies declined, in mid-summer. The temporal shift in insect community structure was associated with parallel changes in the field margin flora, and, although we found no relationship between insect abundance and abundance of field margin flowers, Bombus abundance and total insect abundance were positively correlated with floral diversity. After the crop flowering period, floral abundance and diversity was maintained via margin plants, but by late summer, floral resources declined. Our results confirm the importance of field margins for insect pollinators of entomophilous crops set within grass-dominated landscapes, even during the crop flowering period, and provide additional support for agri-environment schemes that protect and/or improve field margin biodiversity. The results also demonstrate that although shifts in insect and plant communities may be linked phenologically there may not always be simple relationships between insect and floral abundance and richness.

Cropping Pattern Mapping in an Agro-Natural Heterogeneous Landscape Using Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 Satellite Datasets

The quantity of land covered by various crops in a specific time span, referred to as a cropping pattern, dictates the level of agricultural production. However, retrieval of this information at a landscape scale can be challenging, especially when high spatial resolution imagery is not available. This study hypothesized that utilizing the unique advantages of multi-date and medium spatial resolution freely available Sentinel-2 (S2) reflectance bands (S2 bands), their vegetation indices (VIs) and vegetation phenology (VP) derivatives, and Sentinel-1 (S1) backscatter data would improve cropping pattern mapping in heterogeneous landscapes using robust machine learning algorithms, i.e., the guided regularized random forest (GRRF) for variable selection and the random forest (RF) for classification. This study’s objective was to map cropping patterns within three sub-counties in Murang’a County, a typical African smallholder heterogeneous farming area, in Kenya. Specifically, the performance of eight classification scenarios for mapping cropping patterns was compared, namely: (i) only S2 bands; (ii) S2 bands and VIs; (iii) S2 bands and VP; (iv) S2 bands and S1; (v) S2 bands, VIs, and S1; (vi) S2 bands, VP, and S1; (vii) S2 bands, VIs, and VP; and (viii) S2 bands, VIs, VP, and S1. Reference data of the dominant cropping patterns and non-croplands were collected. The GRRF algorithm was used to select the optimum variables in each scenario, and the RF was used to perform the classification for each scenario. The highest overall accuracy was 94.33% with Kappa of 0.93, attained using the GRRF-selected variables of scenario (v) S2, VIs, and S1. Furthermore, McNemar’s test of significance did not show significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) among the tested scenarios. This study demonstrated the strength of GRRF in selecting the most important variables and the synergetic advantage of S2 and S1 derivatives to accurately map cropping patterns in small-scale farming-dominated landscapes. Consequently, the cropping pattern mapping approach can be used in other sites of relatively similar agro-ecological conditions. Additionally, these results can be used to understand the sustainability of food systems and to model the abundance and spread of crop insect pests, diseases, and pollinators.

Insect diversity in vegetable crops of Waemital Village, West Seram, Indonesia

Insects are found in almost all ecosystems. The more diverse the ecosystem, the more various species of insects will be. This study aims to determine the diversity of insect in vegetable crops. Field research was carried out in a vegetable plantation owned by farmers in Waemital village, Kairatu District, Western Seram Indonesia. Observations were made by survey methods in which insects was caught using swing insect net, pitfall trap and hand picking. Insect caught was preserved in plastic bottles contain 70% alcohol. Insects collected were identified at the Insect Collection Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture Pattimura University. Diversity (H’) and dominance (D) indices were analyzed using formula of Shannon-Wiener and Simpson, respectively. Totally, there were 2894 individuals of insect captured during the study which belong to 6 orders, 10 families and 11 species. Order Hemiptera with four species has the highest number of individuals, which is 2167 individuals or 74.88% of the total individuals collected. Most families was collected at chili field while the least was caught at tomato plantation. Based on diversity index (H’) and dominance index (D), insect community at vegetable fields in Waemital Village, Western Seram has moderate diversity with low dominance.

Sampling methods and metereological factors on pests and beneficial organisms in strawberries

We characterize the population dynamics of pests and beneficial organisms in strawberries to assess the impact of two meteorological factors (temperature and precipitation) and define the most appropriate method for monitoring insects in strawberries crop. Population dynamics were monitored weekly using the plant beat method and Möericke traps in Albion strawberries. Measurements were taken in organic strawberry farms over two growing seasons, from March 26, 2010 to August 23, 2010 (first season - 2009/2010) and from October 4, 2010 to March 21, 2011 (second season - 2009/2010) in the municipality of Pinhais, Paraná state, southern Brazil (25º25'S; 49º08'W). We collected a total of 7,971 pests and 1,987 beneficial organisms. The most abundant pests were Chaetosiphon fragaefolii (Cockerell) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in the first growing season and Tetranychus urticae (Koch) (Acari: Tetranychidae) in the second. Beneficial organisms from Acari, Araneae, and Hymenoptera parasitoids predominated in both seasons. Temperature and precipitation were the the primary climatic factor associated with the population variation of aphids. Populations of C. fragaefolii grew when the temperature was between 16°C and 25ºC. We found that plant beat was the fastest and most suitable method for strawberry pests monitoring since it captured insects that were effectively colonizing the plants. This study contributes to a better understanding of the entomofauna associated with cultivation of organic strawberry.

Transposon-mediated insertional mutagenesis unmasks recessive insecticide resistance in the aphid Myzus persicae

The evolution of resistance to insecticides threatens the sustainable control of many of the world's most damaging insect crop pests and disease vectors. To effectively combat resistance, it is important to understand its underlying genetic architecture, including the type and number of genetic variants affecting resistance and their interactions with each other and the environment. While significant progress has been made in characterizing the individual genes or mutations leading to resistance, our understanding of how genetic variants interact to influence its phenotypic expression remains poor. Here, we uncover a mechanism of insecticide resistance resulting from transposon-mediated insertional mutagenesis of a genetically dominant but insecticide-susceptible allele that enables the adaptive potential of a previously unavailable recessive resistance allele to be unlocked. Specifically, we identify clones of the aphid pest Myzus persicae that carry a resistant allele of the essential voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC) gene with the recessive M918T and L1014F resistance mutations, in combination with an allele lacking these mutations but carrying a Mutator-like element transposon insertion that disrupts the coding sequence of the VGSC. This results in the down-regulation of the dominant susceptible allele and monoallelic expression of the recessive resistant allele, rendering the clones resistant to the insecticide bifenthrin. These findings are a powerful example of how transposable elements can provide a source of evolutionary potential that can be revealed by environmental and genetic perturbation, with applied implications for the control of highly damaging insect pests.

Research Progress on Phytopathogenic Fungi and Their Role as Biocontrol Agents.

Phytopathogenic fungi decrease crop yield and quality and cause huge losses in agricultural production. To prevent the occurrence of crop diseases and insect pests, farmers have to use many synthetic chemical pesticides. The extensive use of these pesticides has resulted in a series of environmental and ecological problems, such as the increase in resistant weed populations, soil compaction, and water pollution, which seriously affect the sustainable development of agriculture. This review discusses the main advances in research on plant-pathogenic fungi in terms of their pathogenic factors such as cell wall-degrading enzymes, toxins, growth regulators, effector proteins, and fungal viruses, as well as their application as biocontrol agents for plant pests, diseases, and weeds. Finally, further studies on plant-pathogenic fungal resources with better biocontrol effects can help find new beneficial microbial resources that can control diseases.

Human-robot skills transfer interface for UAV-based precision pesticide in dynamic environments

Purpose Nowadays, the global agricultural system is highly dependent on the widespread use of synthetic pesticides to control diseases, weeds and insects. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is deployed as a major part of integrated pest management in a precision agriculture system for accurately and cost-effectively distributing pesticides to resist crop diseases and insect pests. Design/methodology/approach With multimodal sensor fusion applying adaptive cubature Kalman filter, the position and velocity are enhanced for the correction and accuracy. A dynamic movement primitive is combined with the Gaussian mixture model to obtain numerous trajectories through the teaching of a demonstration. Further, to enhance the trajectory tracking accuracy under an uncertain environment of the spraying, a novel model reference adaptive sliding mode control approach is proposed for motion control. Findings Experimental studies have been carried out to test the ability of the proposed interface for the pesticides in the crop fields. The effectiveness of the proposed interface has been demonstrated by the experimental results. Originality/value To solve the path planning problem of a complex unstructured environment, a human-robot skills transfer interface is introduced for the UAV that is instructed to follow a trajectory demonstrated by a human teacher.

Landscape and Local Drivers Affecting Flying Insects along Fennel Crops (Foeniculum vulgare, Apiaceae) and Implications for Its Yield.

Simple SummaryIn a globally strained context where food production constantly challenges biodiversity, the importance of insect activity to crop pollination is at stake, as insects are essential to more than 75% of global crops. Despite this awareness, there is still a gap of knowledge about the importance of pollinators for aromatic crops. Fennel is an aromatic plant cultivated in the South of France for its essential oil, which is of great economic interest. Here, we explored the effect of the abundance and richness of insects caught at the edge of fennel crops on the yield of essential oil. We found that high insect richness improves fennel essential oil yield. In this context, it appeared important to know what structured the insect communities we trapped. By calculating indices describing the landscape, we have shown that rather than the type of habitat surrounding them, it is the arrangement of habitats that affected the abundance and richness of insects. As these results, confirmed the importance of maintaining complex landscapes to sustain both flower-visiting insect populations and crop yield, they will be of interest to fennel producers.Agricultural landscapes are increasingly characterized by intensification and habitat losses. Landscape composition and configuration are known to mediate insect abundance and richness. In the context of global insect decline, and despite 75% of crops being dependent on insects, there is still a gap of knowledge about the link between pollinators and aromatic crops. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is an aromatic plant cultivated in the South of France for its essential oil, which is of great economic interest. Using pan-traps, we investigated the influence of the surrounding habitats at landscape scale (semi-natural habitat proportion and vicinity, landscape configuration) and local scale agricultural practices (insecticides and patch size) on fennel-flower-visitor abundance and richness, and their subsequent impact on fennel essential oil yield. We found that fennel may to be a generalist plant species. We did not find any effect of intense local management practices on insect abundance and richness. Landscape configuration and proximity to semi-natural habitat were the main drivers of flying insect family richness. This richness positively influenced fennel essential oil yield. Maintaining a complex configuration of patches at the landscape scale is important to sustain insect diversity and crop yield.

EXPLORING THE INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE OF GURUNG COMMUNITY: A CASE STUDY FROM SYANGJA, NEPAL

People have collected knowledge based on their experience and have been using such knowledge to develop new technologies. Every invention in today’s World is the result of empirical knowledge that our precedents collected which is also known as indigenous knowledge. In this paper, we have intended to study the indigenous knowledge and practices of a Nepali community. A study was conducted in Phedi Khola Rural Municipality, Syangja, Nepal to investigate indigenous knowledge and practices of the Gurung Community residing in the study area. The study covers various indigenous technologies used by the Gurung community in aspects such as seed management, crop management, disease pest management, storage, and other indigenous practices. Farmers had rich knowledge regarding the seed selection of different crop varieties. From the result, we can conclude that farmers often conserved local varieties of the crops by using their indigenous knowledge. The existing indigenous knowledge of farmers on crop insect pests and diseases management was not sufficient to secure food in the area. However, the rate of adopting new chemical pesticides and insecticides was negligible. There were various indigenous technologies of the Gurung community with great indigenous knowledge holding from generation to generation. They had both cultural and livelihood importance. The farmers possessed a great deal of local knowledge that can be documented, disseminated, and utilized. The survey provided the fact that these villages had road connections. It has been considered that once the area is totally connected or accessible to the market economy the valuable indigenous knowledge possessed by its inhabitants would be eroded forever. Hence, it was an urgent necessity to conduct a comprehensive study on the indigenous knowledge systems.