Unsung heroes: fixing multifaceted sustainability challenges through insect biological control

Insects are indispensable actors within global agri-food systems and ensure the delivery of myriad ecosystem services. A progressive decline in insect numbers — as inflicted by habitat loss, pollution or intensive agriculture — can jeopardize a sustained provisioning of those services. Though we routinely disregard how insects help meet multiple sustainable development challenges, a gradual insect decline can have grave, long-lasting consequences. Here, we describe how insect-mediated biological control not only defuses invasive pests and can reconstitute crop productivity, but equally delivers other positive social-ecological outcomes. Drawing upon the pan-tropical invasion of the cassava mealybug and its ensuing suppression by the monophagous parasitoid Anagyrus lopezi, we illuminate how biological control contributes to food security, poverty alleviation, human wellbeing and environmental preservation. Trans-disciplinary research and ‘systems thinking’ are needed to maximize the potential of these biodiversity-driven interventions, and thus reap the net positive spin-offs insects provide for farmers, the environment and human society

Transferred depository for twenty-seven holotypes of the plant bug and flower bug species recently described from Thailand (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae and Anthocoridae)

Yasunaga, Tomohide, Yamada, Kazutaka, Morakote, Rut, Taekul, Charuwat, Duangthisan, Jomsurang (2016): Transferred depository for twenty-seven holotypes of the plant bug and flower bug species recently described from Thailand (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae and Anthocoridae). Zootaxa 4107 (3): 444-446, DOI: http://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4107.3.1

Revision of the world species of the genus Fusicornia Risbec (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae, Scelioninae)

The genus Fusicornia Risbec (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae, Scelioninae) is a widespread group in the tropics of the Eastern Hemisphere, distributed from West Africa to Vanuatu. All scelionines are egg parasitoids of arthropods, but the host of Fusicornia is not yet known. The species concepts are revised and a key to world species is presented. The genus is comprised of 19 species, including five known species which are redescribed: F. bambeyi Risbec (sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Yemen); F. indica Mani & Sharma (Australia, India, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand); F. koreica Choi & Kozlov (China, Japan, Korea, Philippines); F. spinosa (Risbec) (sub-Saharan Africa, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen); and F. tehrii Mukerjee (Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand). Fusicornia noonae Buhl is considered to be a junior synonym of F. tehrii Mukerjee, n. syn., and F. bambeyi var. inermis Risbec is considered to be a junior synonym of F. spinosa (Risbec), n. syn. The following species are hypothesized and described as new taxa: F. ardis Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (West Africa, Kenya, Tanzania); F. aulacis Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (Madagascar); F. collaris Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (New Guinea); F. crista Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (Somalia, Tanzania); F. dissita Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (Vanuatu); F. eos Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (West Africa, Tanzania, Yemen); F. episcopus Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (Thailand); F. fax Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (Papua New Guinea); F. fortuna Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. ( Madagascar, Yemen); F. paradisa Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar); F. plicata Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (Sri Lanka); F. skopelos Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (Madagascar); F. sabrina Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (Somalia) and F. speculum Taekul & Johnson, n. sp. (Central African Republic, Madagascar, Nigeria, Uganda)

Revision of the genera Pseudotraulia Laosinchai & Jago, 1980 and Bannacris Zheng, 1980 (Orthoptera: Acrididae) with proposal of new synonyms

The genera Pseudotraulia Laosinchai & Jago, 1980 and Bannacris Zheng, 1980 are revised based on the examination of types and additional materials. Bannacris punctonotus Zheng, 1980 is synonymized with Pseudotraulia cornuata Laosinchai & Jago, 1980 and Bannacris Zheng, 1980 with Pseudotraulia Laosinchai & Jago, 1980. The tribal placement of Pseudotraulia is discussed and the genus Pseudotraulia is transferred here from the tribe Mesambriini of the subfamily Catantopinae Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1893 to the subfamily Coptacrinae Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1893 which is not divided into tribes and consists of 22 genera distributed in the Afrotropical and Oriental regions

World species of the genus Platyscelio Kieffer (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae)

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