Grand challenges in entomology: Priorities for action in the coming decades.

Entomology is key to understanding terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems at a time of unprecedented anthropogenic environmental change and offers substantial untapped potential to benefit humanity in a variety of ways, from improving agricultural practices to managing vector-borne diseases and inspiring technological advances.We identified high priority challenges for entomology using an inclusive, open, and democratic four-stage prioritisation approach, conducted among the membership and affiliates (hereafter 'members') of the UK-based Royal Entomological Society (RES).A list of 710 challenges was gathered from 189 RES members.

Probiotic Supplementation, Hepatic Fibrosis, and the Microbiota Profile in Patients with Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Promising results in improvement of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) have been identified following probiotic (PRO) treatment.

Objectives: To evaluate PRO supplementation on hepatic fibrosis, inflammatory and metabolic markers, and gut microbiota in NASH patients.

Methods: In a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, 48 patients with NASH with a median age of 58 y and median BMI of 32.

Listening to Slugs: Acceptability and Consumption of Molluscicide Pellets by the Grey Field Slug, .

Gastropod damage to crop plants has a significant economic impact on agricultural and horticultural industries worldwide, with the Grey Field Slug ( (Müller)) considered the main mollusc pest in the United Kingdom and in many other temperate areas. The prevailing form of crop protection is pellets containing the active ingredient, metaldehyde. Metaldehyde can cause paralysis and death in the mollusc, depending on the amount ingested.

Recolonization by Slugs: Vertical and Horizontal Dispersal by the Field Slug, .

Following treatment with molluscicides or other controls, slugs can recolonize a site very quickly, but the proportion of the colonizing slugs moving from adjacent areas (horizontal dispersal) and the proportion from within the soil (vertical dispersal) has not previously been established. At a grassland site, barriers were used to exclude and trap slugs in order to estimate horizontal and vertical movement over a period of 32 months. For the first 15 months vertical movement made a significant contribution to the slugs recolonizing a grassland area.

The Fate of Following Metaldehyde Poisoning.

The concentration of a pesticide used in agriculture not only has implications for effectiveness of pest control but may also have significant wider environmental consequences. This research explores the acceptability of metaldehyde slug pellets at different concentrations by (Müller, 1774) (Agriolimacidae), and the changes in the health status of the slug when allowed to recover. The highest metaldehyde concentration (5%) yielded the highest slug mortality; however, it also produced the highest proportion of unpoisoned slugs, suggesting the highest level of pellet rejection.