A New Approach for Detecting Sublethal Effects of Neonicotinoids on Bumblebees Using Optical Sensor Technology.

Among insects, bees are important pollinators, providing many vital ecosystem services. The recent pollinator decline is threatening both their diversity and abundance. One of the main drivers of this decline is the extensive use of pesticides.

Stable Isotope Enrichment (ΔN) in the Predatory Flower Bug () Predicts Fitness-Related Differences between Diets.

Mass rearing of insects, used both as biological control agents and for food and feed, is receiving increasing attention. Efforts are being made to improve diets that are currently in use, and to identify alternative diets, as is the case with the predatory flower bug () and other heteropteran predators, due to the high costs of their current diet, the eggs of the Mediterranean flour moth (). The assessment of alternative diets may include measurements of the predator's fitness-related traits (development time, weight, etc.

Nutritional quality of Drosophila melanogaster as factitious prey for rearing the predatory bug Orius majusculus.

The predatory bug, Orius majusculus (Reuter), is an important predator of thrips commercially produced for augmentative releases using the eggs of the Mediterranean flour moth Ephestia kuehniella (Zeller). In this study, we assessed the potential for using frozen adults of fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen), either as nymphal rearing diet or as diet throughout the entire life-cycle. We compared life-history traits and reproduction of predators when fed D.