Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Entomology: How Molecular Biology is
Changing Urban Pest Management
Edward L. Vargo*
North Carolina State University, USA
Introduction
In general, urban entomologists have
been slower to adopt molecular ecological
approaches than other researchers but that
is now changing. Genetic techniques are
now being used with increasing frequency
in urban entomology, for both furthering
our understanding of the basic biology of
pest species and in generating new in-
formation to more effectively manage them
(e.g. Vargo and Husseneder, 2009). This
chapter reviews studies of the molecular
ecology of urban insect pests, focusing on
research with relevance to management.
After a brief introduction of the most
commonly used techniques in molecular
ecology, the chapter reviews the four main
areas of urban entomology that are
addressed by molecular ecology approaches:
(i) taxonomy and species identifi cation; (ii)
colony identifi cation in social insect
species; (iii) origins of invasive species; and
(iv) population structure and dispersal
dynamics. Much of this work has focused
on the large and important group of
subterranean termites (Rhinotermitidae) so
this review primarily concentrates on this
group but also includes information on
other urban pests where relevant inform-
ation exists, especially ants, German cock-
roaches and bed bugs.
Molecular ecology has emerged as a powerful
discipline that uses molecular genetic
markers to elucidate many aspects of an
organism's ecology, evolution and behaviour,
including phylogeography, population
biology, invasion biology, behavioural
ecology and conservation biology (Carvalho,
1998). Advances in the collection and
analysis of genetic data now permit us to
answer many questions in biology that were
previously diffi cult or impossible to address.
Furthermore, these tools allow us to answer
old questions in much greater detail than
ever before. For example, genetic markers
have allowed us to identify the source
populations for some global invasive pests.
And genetic fi ngerprinting of subterranean
termite colonies enables us to identify and
track dozens of colonies per site and for long
periods of time, allowing for much more
extensive and longer term studies than other
methods of colony identifi cation such as
mark-release-recapture using vital dyes.
Because of the power of molecular markers
to provide new insights into many aspects of
fi eld biology, these tools have been
increasingly adopted by a variety of scientists
and are commonplace in many studies.
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