Walaphyllium subgen. nov., the dancing leaf insects from Australia and Papua New Guinea with description of a new species (Phasmatodea, Phylliidae).

A new subgenus, Walaphyllium subgen. nov., is described within Phyllium Illiger, 1798 to accommodate three leaf insect species. One of the species included is newly described herein as Phyllium (Walaphyllium) lelantossp. nov. from Papua New Guinea. This new subgenus of Phyllium can be diagnosed by a following combination of features. This new species is compared to the two additional new subgenus members, Phyllium zomproi Größer, 2001 and Phyllium monteithi Brock & Hasenpusch, 2003. Also for the first time the male morphology of Phyllium zomproi is described and illustrated. To conclude, a brief biogeographical view of the leaf insects on either side of the Torres Strait is presented, as well as a key to species and a distribution map to the known species of Phyllium (Walaphyllium)subgen. nov.

Landscape context affects the sustainability of organic farming systems.

Organic agriculture promotes sustainability compared to conventional agriculture. However, the multifunctional sustainability benefits of organic farms might be mediated by landscape context. Assessing how landscape context affects sustainability may aid in targeting organic production to landscapes that promote high biodiversity, crop yields, and profitability. We addressed this using a meta-analysis spanning 60 crop types on six continents that assessed whether landscape context affected biodiversity, yield, and profitability of organic vs. conventional agroecosystems. We considered landscape metrics reflecting landscape composition (percent cropland), compositional heterogeneity (number and diversity of cover types), and configurational heterogeneity (spatial arrangement of cover types) across our study systems. Organic sites had greater biodiversity (34%) and profits (50%) than conventional sites, despite lower yields (18%). Biodiversity gains increased as average crop field size in the landscape increased, suggesting organic farms provide a "refuge" in intensive landscapes. In contrast, as crop field size increased, yield gaps between organic and conventional farms increased and profitability benefits of organic farming decreased. Profitability of organic systems, which we were only able to measure for studies conducted in the United States, varied across landscapes in conjunction with production costs and price premiums, suggesting socioeconomic factors mediated profitability. Our results show biodiversity benefits of organic farming respond differently to landscape context compared to yield and profitability benefits, suggesting these sustainability metrics are decoupled. More broadly, our results show that the ecological, but not the economic, sustainability benefits of organic agriculture are most pronounced in more intensive agricultural landscapes.

Biological control agents in the Anthropocene: current risks and future options.

Global climate change is often expected to disrupt biological control. Predicting the effects of climate change on biological control, and identifying natural enemies that will thrive in future climate scenarios, is thus essential to ensure agricultural sustainability. To promote biological control under climate change, land managers should prioritise the conservation of natural enemy diversity to ensure some effective natural enemies are always present despite often-unpredictable climate scenarios. In addition, ecophysiological and habitat domain models should be combined to predict climate change-induced shifts in predation by diverse predator communities. Finally, insights from land managers during extreme weather events, such as droughts and heat waves, may be invaluable in the effort to identify key biological control agents for future scenarios.