An increase in management actions has compensated for past climate change effects on desert locust gregarization in western Africa.

In response to high population density, the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria, becomes gregarious and forms swarms that can cause significant damage to crops and pastures, threatening food security of human populations from western Africa to India. This switch from solitary to gregarious populations is highly dependent on favorable weather conditions. Climate change, which has been hypothesized to shift conditions towards increasing risks of gregarization, is therefore likely to have significant impacts on the spatial distribution and likelihood of outbreak events. However, the desert locust is intensely managed at large scales, which possibly counteracts any increased risk of outbreaks due to a more favorable climate. Consequently, understanding the changes in risks in the future involves teasing out the effects of climate change and management actions. Here we studied the dynamics of gregarization at the very early stages of potential outbreaks, in parallel with trends in climate and management, between 1985 and 2018 in western Africa. We used three different spatial scales, with the goal to have a better understanding of the potential effects of climate change per se while controlling for management. Our first approach was to look at a regional scale, where we observed an overall decrease in gregarization events. However, this scale includes very heterogeneous environments and management efforts. To consider this heterogeneity, we divided the area into a grid of 0.5° cells. For each cell, a climate analysis was performed for rainfall and temperature, with trends obtained by a harmonic decomposition model on monthly data. Analyses of gregarization showed only a few significant trends, both positive and negative, mainly found in western Mauritania where management effort has increased. To improve the statistical power, these cells were then grouped into larger homogeneous climatic clusters, i.e. groups of cells with similar climatic conditions and similar climatic trends over the study period. At this scale, gregarization events depend on the intersection between climate conditions and management efforts. The clusters where gregarization increased were also the ones with the highest increase of management. These results highlight the important effect of preventive management, which may counteract the positive effects of climate change on locust proliferation.

The unseen invaders: Tracking phylogeographic dynamics and genetic diversity of cryptic Pomacea canaliculata and P. maculata (Golden apple snails) across Taiwan.

The cryptic invasion of golden apple snails (Pomacea canaliculata and P. maculata) in Taiwan has caused significant ecological and economical damage over the last few decades, however, their management remains difficult due to inadequate taxonomic identification, complex phylogeny, and limited population genetic information. We aim to understand the current distribution, putative population of origin, genetic diversity, and potential path of cryptic invasion of Pomacea canaliculata and P. maculata across Taiwan to aid in improved mitigation approaches. The present investigation conducted a nationwide survey with 254 samples collected from 41 locations in 14 counties or cities across Taiwan. We identified P. canaliculata and P. maculata based on mitochondrial COI and compared their genetic diversity across Taiwan, as well as other introduced and native countries (based on publicly available COI data) to understand the possible paths of invasion to Taiwan. Based on mitochondrial COI barcoding, sympatric and heterogeneous distributions of invasive P. canaliculata and P. maculata were noted. Our haplotype analysis and mismatch distribution results suggested multiple introductions of P. canaliculata in Taiwan was likely originated directly from Argentina, whereas P. maculata was probably introduced from a single, or a few, introduction event(s) from Argentina and Brazil. Our population genetic data further demonstrated a higher haplotype and genetic diversity for P. canaliculata and P. maculata in Taiwan compared to other introduced regions. Based on our current understanding, the establishment of P. canaliculata and P. maculata is alarming and widespread beyond geopolitical borders, requiring a concerted and expedited national and international invasive species mitigation program.

Intergenerational Effects of Sublethal Lambda-Cyhalothrin Exposure on Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae) Reproduction and Development.

Aphis gossypii Glover, a widespread insect, presents a substantial danger to global agriculture. Lambda-cyhalothrin is a pyrethroid insecticide that has been widely studied for its effects on arthropods. Studies have reported that sublethal doses of insecticides can produce various consequences on arthropod reproduction. Hence, the objective of this research was to examine the potential effects of a sublethal dose of lambda-cyhalothrin (LC30, 1.15 mg/L) on A. gossypii, for which we created life tables and conducted qPCR analysis. Adult longevity, fecundity, net reproductive rate (R0), body length, width, weight, and the expression of vitellogenin (Vg) and vitellogenin receptor (VgR) genes were not significantly altered by lambda-cyhalothrin treatment at LC30 concentration in the F0 generation of A. gossypii adults. The intrinsic rate of increase (r) and finite rates of increase (λ) decreased significantly, while the mean generation time (T) increased. In addition, Vg and VgR gene expression levels were significantly higher in the F1 and F2 generations, whereas body length, width, and weight were notably reduced. The developmental duration, longevity, r, and λ did not differ significantly from those of the control group. Thus, the sublethal and intergenerational stimulatory effects of lambda-cyhalothrin were observed in A. gossypii, and the alterations in Vg and VgR in A. gossypii were strongly associated with sublethal effects. The results of this research offer valuable knowledge regarding the indirect impacts of lambda-cyhalothrin on A. gossypii, which can be utilized as a theoretical foundation for the prudent utilization of insecticides to combat this pest and devise strategies for managing resistance.

Bioactivities of scent gland chemicals from Mictis fuscipes Hsiao (Hemiptera: Coreidae) on Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

BACKGROUND: Given the chemical diversity within stink bugs scent glands, they can be convenient models for bioprospecting novel pest control products. Preliminary behaviour observations indicated that adult Mictis fuscipes stink bugs secrete liquid droplets when defending against Solenopsis invicta fire ants, killing them within minutes. Hence, this study aimed to analyse the chemical composition of the metathoracic scent gland secretions of M. fuscipes adults, as well as assess their biological activities against fire ants. RESULTS: Bioassaying fire ants against secretions of several local stink bugs confirmed that the defensive secretions of two Mictis species are significantly more lethal, where M. fuscipes was the most lethal. Volatiles chromatography analysis indicated the secretions of female and male M. fuscipes stink bugs contains 20 and 26 components, respectively, chiefly hexanoic acid and hexyl hexanoate. Five compounds were consistently present in the secretion of female adults: hexyl hexanoate, hexanoic acid, hexyl acetate, hexyl butyrate, and eugenol. These yielded a strong electrophysiological antennal (EAD) response from S. invicta workers, female alates and males, where hexyl acetate showed the strongest response. The combination of these five compounds proved strongly repellent to S. invicta. When tested singly, hexanoic acid, hexyl butyrate, hexyl hexanoate, and eugenol were repellent to S. invicta, but hexyl acetate seemed slightly attractive. Additionally, the same mixture of five components exhibited strong contact and fumigant toxicity towards S. invicta workers, eugenol being the strongest. CONCLUSION: Defensive chemicals of M. fuscipes exhibit robust biological activity against S. invicta and could inspire the development of biopesticides. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.

Complementary use of visual and olfactory cues to assess capture of Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel): Implementation and field verification via an IoT-based automatic monitoring system.

This study examined the effect of combining visual and olfactory cues to attract oriental fruit flies (OFFs). Six different colored light-emitting diodes (LEDs) served as a visual attractant and methyl eugenol served as olfactory bait to lure male flies. An internet of things (IoT)-based pest monitoring system, consisting of sensor nodes, a gateway, and automatic counting traps, was deployed in the field to automatically collect environmental data and pest counts. The results of the calibrated experiments indicated that green, yellow, or red LEDs exhibited better performance in attracting flies than white, purple, or blue LEDs or no LEDs. With an accurate combination of visual and olfactory cues, the proposed IoT-based pest monitoring system may be an effective tool in agricultural pest management, given its advantages for efficiently capturing OFFs in a labor and time saving manner, providing accurate information regarding increases in pest populations, and enabling long-term, real-time data collection.

General science-technology orientation, specific benefit-risk assessment frame, and public acceptance of gene drive biotechnology.

With limited understanding of most new biotechnologies, how do citizens form their opinion and what factors influence their attitudes about these innovations? In this study, we use gene drive biotechnology in agricultural pest management as an example and theoretically propose that given low levels of knowledge and awareness, citizens' acceptance of, or opposition to, gene drive is significantly shaped by two predisposition factors: individuals' general orientation toward science and technology, and their specific benefit-risk assessment frame. Empirically, we employ data collected from a recent US nationally representative public opinion survey (N = 1220) and conduct statistical analyses to test the hypotheses derived from our theoretical expectations. Our statistical analyses, based on various model specifications and controlling for individual-level covariates and state-fixed effects, show that citizens with a more favorable general orientation toward science and technology are more likely to accept gene drive. Our data analyses also demonstrate that citizens' specific gene drive assessment frame-consisting of a potential benefit dimension and a potential risk dimension, significantly shapes their attitudes as well-specifically, people emphasizing more on the benefit dimension are more likely to accept gene drive, whereas those who place more importance on the risk dimension tend to oppose it. We discuss contributions of our study and make suggestions for future research in the conclusion.

Virulence of Beauveria sp. and Metarhizium sp. fungi towards fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda).

The development of effective pest management strategies for Spodoptera frugiperda is a high priority for crop protection across its invasive ranges. Here, we examined six Beauveria and five Metarhizium fungal isolates against this pest. Two Beauveria isolates (B-0571, B-1311) induced high mortality toward 3rd and 6th instar caterpillars and adults. For B-0571 mortality was 82.81 ± 5.75%, 61.46 ± 6.83%, and 93.75 ± 3.61%, and 73.72 ± 2.51%, 71.88 ± 5.41%, and 97.92 ± 2.08% for B-1311, with deaths in caterpillars largely occurring under 24 h (3rd instar control 0.74 ± 0.33%, B-0571 73.96 ± 7.85% and B-1311 62.08 ± 3.67%; 6th instar control 0%, B-0571 66.67% ± 11.02% and B-1311 62.5% ± 9.55%). Infection from both Beauveria isolates fully prevented reproduction in surviving S. frugiperda females. In contrast, all five Metarhizium isolates tested and the remaining four Beauveria isolates exhibited lower virulence. The discovery of two highly virulent Beauveria fungal isolates to S. frugiperda opens avenues to develop novel biological control tools against this highly invasive pest.

Backbone and side chain NMR assignments and secondary structure calculation of the pheromone binding protein3 of Ostrinia nubilalis, an agricultural pest.

Ostrinia nubilalis, also known as European Corn Borer (ECB), is a serious pest in Europe and North America, as well as in Central Asia and Northern Africa. It damages a variety of agricultural crops such as corn, oats, buckwheat, millet, and soybeans. causing annually at least one billion dollars in loss. The Ostrinia nubilalis pheromone-binding protein3 (OnubPBP3), preferentially expressed in the male moth antenna, has been implicated in the detection of the female-secreted pheromone blend during the mating process. Understanding the structure of and function of OnubPBP3, including the mechanism of pheromone binding and its release at the dendritic olfactory neuron (ORN), is essential if integrated pest management through sensory inhibition is to be achieved. We report here the backbone and side-chain resonance assignments of OnubPBP3 at pH 6.5 using various triple resonance NMR experiments on a 13C, 15N-labeled protein sample. The secondary structure of OnubPBP3 consists of six α-helices and an unstructured C-terminus based on backbone chemical shifts.

Development of the first high-density linkage map in the maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais.

The maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais, is a worldwide pest that disproportionately affects subsistence farmers in developing countries. Damage from this pest threatens food security in these communities as widely available and effective control methods are lacking. With advances over the last decade in the development of genetic pest management techniques, addressing pest issues at the ecosystem level as opposed to the farm level may be a possibility. However, pest species selected for genetic management techniques require a well-characterized genome and few genomic tools have been developed for S. zeamais. Here, we have measured the genome size and developed the first genetic linkage map for this species. The genome size was determined using flow cytometry as 682 Mb and 674 Mb for females and males, respectively. The linkage map contains 11 linkage groups, which correspond to the 10 autosomes and 1 X-chromosome found in the species and it contains 1,121 SNPs. This linkage map will be useful for assembling a complete genome for S. zeamais.

Parasitization of Aphis gossypii Glover by Binodoxys communis Gahan Causes Shifts in the Ovarian Bacterial Microbiota.

BACKGROUND: Aphis gossypii Glover is an important agricultural pest distributed worldwide. Binodoxys communis Gahan is the main parasitoid wasp of A. gossypii. Previous studies have shown that parasitization causes reduced egg production in A. gossypii, but the effects of parasitism on the symbiotic bacteria in the host ovaries are unknown. RESULTS: In this study, we analyzed the microbial communities in the ovaries of A. gossypii without and after parasitization. Whether parasitized or not, Buchnera was the dominant genus of symbiotic bacteria in the ovaries, followed by facultative symbionts including Arsenophonus, Pseudomonas, and Acinetobacter. The relative abundance of Buchnera in the aphid ovary increased after parasitization for 1 d in both third-instar nymph and adult stages, but decreased after parasitization for 3 d. The shifts in the relative abundance of Arsenophonus in both stages were the same as those observed for Buchnera. In addition, the relative abundance of Serratia remarkably decreased after parasitization for 1 d and increased after parasitization for 3 d. A functional predictive analysis of the control and parasitized ovary microbiomes revealed that pathways primarily enriched in parasitization were "amino acid transport and metabolism" and "energy production and conversion." Finally, RT-qPCR analysis was performed on Buchnera, Arsenophonus, and Serratia. The results of RT-qPCR were the same as the results of 16S rDNA sequencing. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide a framework for investigating shifts in the microbial communities in host ovaries, which may be responsible for reduced egg production in aphids. These findings also broaden our understanding of the interactions among aphids, parasitoid wasps, and endosymbionts.

Genome assembly of Thaumatotibia leucotreta, a major polyphagous pest of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.

The false codling moth (FCM; Thaumatotibia leucotreta, Meyrick; Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) is a highly polyphagous, major agricultural pest indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa. With growing international trade, there is an increasing concern about introducing this pest into other countries. In South Africa, FCM poses a risk to multiple crops, and is currently suppressed through a combination of chemical, microbial, cultural, augmentative biological control, and the sterile insect technique. Compared with other lepidopteran agricultural pests, such as codling moth Cydia pomonella, genetic and other -omic resources for FCM have not been as well developed and/or not made publicly available to date. The need to develop genomic resources to address questions around insecticide resistance, chemosensory capabilities, and ultimately, develop novel control methods (e.g. gene editing) of this pest is highlighted. In this study, an adult male was sequenced using long-read PacBio Sequel II reads and Illumina NextSeq short reads and assembled using a hybrid assembly pipeline and Pilon error correction. Using the chromosome-level genome assembly of Cy. pomonella, we performed comparative analysis, arranged FCM scaffolds to chromosomes, and investigated genetic variation related to insecticide resistance and chemosensory capabilities. This work provides a platform upon which to build future genomic research on this economically important agricultural pest.

Quantifying the impacts of symbiotic interactions between two invasive species: the tawny crazy ant (Nylanderia fulva) tending the sorghum aphid (Melanaphis sorghi).

The establishment of new symbiotic interactions between introduced species may facilitate invasion success. For instance, tawny crazy ant (Nylanderia fulva Mayr) is known to be an opportunistic tender of honeydew producing insects and this ants' symbiotic interactions have exacerbated agricultural damage in some invaded regions of the world. The invasive sorghum aphid (Melanaphis sorghi Theobald) was first reported as a pest in the continental United States-in Texas and Louisiana-as recent as 2013, and tawny crazy ant (TCA) was reported in Texas in the early 2000s. Although these introductions are relatively recent, TCA workers tend sorghum aphids in field and greenhouse settings. This study quantified the tending duration of TCA workers to sorghum aphids and the impact of TCA tending on aphid biomass. For this study aphids were collected from three different host plant species (i.e., sugarcane, Johnson grass, and sorghum) and clone colonies were established. Sorghum is the main economic crop in which these aphids occur, hence we focused our study on the potential impacts of interactions on sorghum. Quantification of invasive ant-aphid interactions, on either stems or leaves of sorghum plants, were conducted in greenhouse conditions. Our results show that although these two invasive insect species do not have a long coevolutionary history, TCA developed a tending interaction with sorghum aphid, and aphids were observed excreting honeydew after being antennated by TCA workers. Interestingly, this relatively recent symbiotic interaction significantly increased overall aphid biomass for aphids that were positioned on stems and collected from Johnson grass. It is recommended to continue monitoring the interaction between TCA and sorghum aphid in field conditions due to its potential to increase aphid populations and sorghum plant damage.

Lethal Concentration and Sporulation by Contact and Direct Spray of the Entomopathogenic Fungus Beauveria bassiana on Different Stages of Nezara viridula (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae).

The southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula (L.) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) is the most significant pest of soybean worldwide. The present study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of a Delta native strain NI8 of Beauveria bassiana by contact and direct spray on nymphs (2nd to 5th instar) and adults of N. viridula. Water control and four concentrations of B. bassiana were used to evaluate the survival, mortality, and molting percentage and to estimate median lethal concentration (LC50), median lethal sporulation (LS50), and resistance ratio (RR50). Direct spray at all concentrations observed the greatest reduction in survival on all life stages. Mortality and sporulation were positively correlated by concentration, while molting was highly variable with a significantly lower negative correlation on insects that were directly sprayed. Pathogenicity exhibited reduction as young stages developed and emerged to adult. The LC50 (Contact: 612 spores/mm2; Direct spray: 179 spores/mm2) and LS50 (Contact: 1960 spores/mm2 Spray: 3.3 × 106) values showed that adults of N. viridula were highly resistant than any other life stage when exposed to either contact or direct spray. Fourth instar was the most susceptible (LC50: Contact: 18 spores/mm2; Direct spray: 23 spores/mm2) (LS50: Contact: 53 spores/mm2; Direct spray: 26 spores/mm2) followed by second, third, and fifth instars.

Entomopathogenic Fungi-Mediated AgNPs: Synthesis and Insecticidal Effect against Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae).

The insect Plutella xylostella is known worldwide to cause severe damage to brassica plantations because of its resistance against several groups of chemicals and pesticides. Efforts have been conducted to overcome the barrier of P. xylostella genetic resistance. Because of their easy production and effective insecticidal activity against different insect orders, silver nanoparticles are proposed as an alternative for agricultural pest control. The use of entomopathogenic fungi for nanoparticle production may offer additional advantages since fungal biomolecules may synergistically improve the nanoparticle's effectiveness. The present study aimed to synthesize silver nanoparticles using aqueous extracts of Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae, and Isaria fumosorosea isolates and to evaluate their insecticidal activity against P. xylostella, as innovative nano-ecofriendly pest control. The produced silver nanoparticles were evaluated by measuring the UV-vis spectrum and the mean particle size by dynamic light scattering (DLS). I. fumosorosea aqueous extract with 3-mM silver nitrate solution showed the most promising results (86-nm mean diameter and 0.37 of polydispersity). Scanning electron microscopy showed spherical nanoparticles and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy revealed the presence of amine and amide groups, possibly responsible for nanoparticles' reduction and stabilization. The CL50 value of 0.691 mg mL-1 was determined at 72-h for the second-instar larvae of the P. xylostella, promoting a 78% of cumulative mortality rate after the entire larval stage. From our results, the synthesis of silver nanoparticles mediated by entomopathogenic fungi was successful in obtaining an efficient product for insect pest control. The I. fumosorosea was the most suitable isolate for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles contributing to the development of a green nanoproduct and the potential control of P. xylostella.

Susceptibility of Different Life Stages of Kudzu Bug Megacopta cribraria (F.) (Hemiptera: Plataspidae) to Two Different Native Strains of Beauveria bassiana.

This is the first study that examined and compared the survival, LC50, and RR50 estimates of Megacopta cribraria F. (Hemiptera: Plataspidae) nymphs and adults that were exposed to two native Beauveria bassiana isolates (Previously codified as NI8 and KUDSC strains) at four concentrations. The greatest reduction in survival and mortality was observed primarily on or after 10 d post-exposure to B. bassiana isolates. Survival of early instars (2nd, 3rd) were not affected by either strains or concentration at 3 d and 5 d post-exposure. Survival of later instars (5th) and adults was significantly reduced when exposed to the KUDSC strain at all concentrations. Comparison of dose−mortality values (LC50) using resistance ratios (RR50) were significantly different between life stages of the kudzu bug for both strains of B. bassiana. The LC50 values showed that kudzu bug adults are more susceptible than any other life stage when exposed to either strain. The KUDSC strain was more pathogenic than NI8 10 d after exposure, but NI8 exhibited significantly higher pathogenicity than KUDSC 20 d after exposure. Our results suggest potential field application of B. bassiana for kudzu bug control and their integration into pest management strategies to suppress them before they cause economic damage to soybean crops.

Nanoparticles Loaded with Essential Oil from Zanthoxylum riedelianum Engl. Leaves: Characterization and Effects on Bemisia tabaci Middle-East Asia Minor 1.

Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Middle-East Asia Minor 1 is a major pest of agricultural production systems. It is controlled by synthetic insecticides. Essential oils are promising eco-friendly alternatives. This study developed and characterized nanoparticles loaded with essential oils of Zanthoxylum riedelianum Engl. (Rutaceae) leaves and evaluated their potential for B. tabaci management. The essential oil exhibited an average yield of 0.02% (w w-1) and showed as major components γ-elemene (24.81%), phytol (18.16%), bicyclogermacrene (16.18%), cis-nerolidol (8.26%), and D-germacrene (6.52%). Characterization of the nanoparticles showed a pH between 4.5 and 6.7, a zeta potential of approximately - 25 mV, particle-size distribution ranging from 450 to 550 nm, and encapsulation efficiency close to 98%. The nanoencapsulation was an efficient process that provided photostability against photodegradation. Bioassays with crude and nanoencapsulated essential oils significantly reduced the number of nymphs and eggs of B. tabaci, with the best results observed at concentrations of 5 and 2% (v v-1). Our results demonstrated that essential oils from Z. riedelianum can be nanoformulated resulting in a stable product while maintaining their biological activity against B. tabaci Middle-East Asia Minor 1.

Global Context-Aware-Based Deformable Residual Network Module for Precise Pest Recognition and Detection.

An accurate and robust pest detection and recognition scheme is an important step to enable the high quality and yield of agricultural products according to integrated pest management (IPM). Due to pose-variant, serious overlap, dense distribution, and interclass similarity of agricultural pests, the precise detection of multi-classes pest faces great challenges. In this study, an end-to-end pest detection algorithm has been proposed on the basis of deep convolutional neural networks. The detection method adopts a deformable residual network to extract pest features and a global context-aware module for obtaining region-of-interests of agricultural pests. The detection results of the proposed method are compared with the detection results of other state-of-the-art methods, for example, RetinaNet, YOLO, SSD, FPN, and Cascade RCNN modules. The experimental results show that our method can achieve an average accuracy of 77.8% on 21 categories of agricultural pests. The proposed detection algorithm can achieve 20.9 frames per second, which can satisfy real-time pest detection.

MSR-RCNN: A Multi-Class Crop Pest Detection Network Based on a Multi-Scale Super-Resolution Feature Enhancement Module.

Pest disaster severely reduces crop yield and recognizing them remains a challenging research topic. Existing methods have not fully considered the pest disaster characteristics including object distribution and position requirement, leading to unsatisfactory performance. To address this issue, we propose a robust pest detection network by two customized core designs: multi-scale super-resolution (MSR) feature enhancement module and Soft-IoU (SI) mechanism. The MSR (a plug-and-play module) is employed to improve the detection performance of small-size, multi-scale, and high-similarity pests. It enhances the feature expression ability by using a super-resolution component, a feature fusion mechanism, and a feature weighting mechanism. The SI aims to emphasize the position-based detection requirement by distinguishing the performance of different predictions with the same Intersection over Union (IoU). In addition, to prosper the development of agricultural pest detection, we contribute a large-scale light-trap pest dataset (named LLPD-26), which contains 26-class pests and 18,585 images with high-quality pest detection and classification annotations. Extensive experimental results over multi-class pests demonstrate that our proposed method achieves the best performance by 67.4% of mAP on the LLPD-26 while being 15.0 and 2.7% gain than state-of-the-art pest detection AF-RCNN and HGLA respectively. Ablation studies verify the effectiveness of the proposed components.

AgriPest-YOLO: A rapid light-trap agricultural pest detection method based on deep learning.

Light traps have been widely used for automatic monitoring of pests in the field as an alternative to time-consuming and labor-intensive manual investigations. However, the scale variation, complex background and dense distribution of pests in light-trap images bring challenges to the rapid and accurate detection when utilizing vision technology. To overcome these challenges, in this paper, we put forward a lightweight pest detection model, AgriPest-YOLO, for achieving a well-balanced between efficiency, accuracy and model size for pest detection. Firstly, we propose a coordination and local attention (CLA) mechanism for obtaining richer and smoother pest features as well as reducing the interference of noise, especially for pests with complex backgrounds. Secondly, a novel grouping spatial pyramid pooling fast (GSPPF) is designed, which enriches the multi-scale representation of pest features via fusing multiple receptive fields of different scale features. Finally, soft-NMS is introduced in the prediction layer to optimize the final prediction results of overlapping pests. We evaluated the performance of our method on a large scale multi pest image dataset containing 24 classes and 25k images. Experimental results show that AgriPest-YOLO achieves end-to-end real-time pest detection with high accuracy, obtaining 71.3% mAP on the test dataset, outperforming the classical detection models (Faster RCNN, Cascade RCNN, Dynamic RCNN,YOLOX and YOLOv4) and lightweight detection models (Mobilenetv3-YOLOv4, YOLOv5 and YOLOv4-tiny), meanwhile our method demonstrates better balanced performance in terms of model size, detection speed and accuracy. The method has good accuracy and efficiency in detecting multi-class pests from light-trap images which is a key component of pest forecasting and intelligent pest monitoring technology.

Small-Mammal Shooting as a Conduit for Lead Exposure in Avian Scavengers.

Lead (Pb) exposure is a widespread wildlife conservation threat. Although commonly associated with Pb-based ammunition from big-game hunting, small mammals (e.g., ground squirrels) shot for recreational or pest-management purposes represent a potentially important Pb vector in agricultural regions. We measured the responses of avian scavengers to pest-shooting events and examined their Pb exposure through consumption of shot mammals. There were 3.4-fold more avian scavengers at shooting fields relative to those at fields with no recent shooting, and avian scavengers spent 1.8-fold more time feeding after recent shooting events. We isotopically labeled shot ground squirrels in the field with an enriched 15N isotope tracer; 6% of avian scavengers sampled within a 39 km radius reflected this tracer in their blood. However, 33% of the avian scavengers within the average foraging dispersal distance of nests (0.6-3.7 km) were labeled, demonstrating the importance of these shooting fields as a source of food for birds nesting in close proximity. Additionally, Pb concentrations in 48% of avian scavengers exceeded subclinical poisoning benchmarks for sensitive species (0.03-0.20 µg/g w/w), and those birds exhibited reduced δ-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase activity, indicating a biochemical effect of Pb. The use of shooting to manage small mammal pests is a common practice globally. Efforts that can reduce the use of Pb-based ammunition may lessen the negative physiological effects of Pb exposure on avian scavengers.