Kris Wyckhuys

The University of Queensland | UQ

Beneficial insects provide pollination and biological control in natural and man-made settings. Those ecosystem services (ES) are especially important for high-value fruits and vegetables, including those grown under greenhouse conditions. The hoverfly Eupeodes corollae (Diptera: Syrphidae) delivers both ES, given that its larvae prey upon aphid pe...

Crop losses from pests threaten global food security and safety. In the last six decades, pest control using chemical pesticides has resulted in important yield gains per unit area, worldwide. However, the long-term sustainability of chemical pest control has been increasingly thrown into doubt due to the negative impact on human health, biodiversi...

The coconut black-headed caterpillar (BHC), Opisina arenosella Walker (Lepidoptera: Xyloryctidae) is an important herbivore of palm trees that originates in South Asia. Over the past decades, O. arenosella has spread to several countries in Eastern and Southeast Asia. BHC larval feeding can cause severe defoliation and occasional plant death, resul...

The fall armyworm [FAW, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith)] is an important invasive pest of maize crops in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. To enable timely and effective pest management, accurate monitoring and forecasting of S. frugiperda populations is essential. In this study, we used food attractants to assess seasonal abundance of S. frugi...

Globally, insect abundance and diversity are experiencing a rapid decline. Despite important inter-taxa and geographical variability, this can entail an extinction of ecological interactions and a decay of ecosystem functions. In this study, we compared the spatial distribution, abundance and species composition of Trichogramma spp. egg parasitoids...

Interest in the use of microbial and invertebrate biological control agents (BCAs) in food and agriculture is increasing. Growing concerns about the impact of pesticide use on biodiversity and human health – and increasing demand for products from biodiversity-friendly production systems, including organic systems – have led to growing interest in...

Insects provide critical ecosystem services such as biological pest control, in which natural enemies (NE) regulate the populations of crop-feeding herbivores (H). While H-NE dynamics are routinely studied at small spatiotemporal scales, multiyear assessments over entire agrolandscapes are rare. Here, we draw on 18-year radar and searchlight trappi...

The rice stem borer (RSB), Chilo suppressalis (Walker), is an economically important pest of rice in subtropical Asia. Up till present, it remains unknown how pest abundance and parasitoid-mediated biological control are modulated by landscape composition. In this study, 20 rice fields with varying proportion of non-crop habitat in (2000 m radius)...

Crop losses from pests threaten global food security and safety. In the last six decades, pest control using chemical pesticides has resulted in important yield gains per unit area, worldwide. However, the long-term sustainability of chemical pest control has been increasingly thrown into doubt due to the negative impact on human health, biodiversi...

Climate warming is considered to be among the most serious of anthropogenic stresses to the environment, because it not only has direct effects on biodiversity, but it also exacerbates the harmful effects of other human-mediated threats. The associated consequences are potentially severe, particularly in terms of threats to species preservation, as...

China is the world's second largest maize producer and consumer. In recent years, the invasive fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) has adversely affected maize productivity and compromised food security. To mitigate pest-inflicted food shortages, China's Government issued biosafety certificates for two genetically modified (GM) Bt maiz...

Background: Habitat management such as field- or farm-level diversification can conserve arthropod natural enemies, enhance biological pest control and lower (or suspend) insecticide use in agricultural crops. These approaches however have been underexploited to manage the aphid Aphis gossypii in cotton cropping systems of Xinjiang, China. In this...

The top-down effect of natural enemies on pests is a crucial ecosystem service supporting integrated pest management. However, the variation in morphological traits of parasitoids in different landscape contexts and the differences in parasitoid emergence rate caused by this variation are still poorly known. We measured the inter-tegular distance (...

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has spotlighted the intricate connections between human and planetary health. Given that pesticide-centered crop protection degrades ecological resilience and (in-)directly harms human health, the adoption of ecologically sound, biodiversity-driven alternatives is imperative. In this Synthesis paper, we illuminate how...

The fall armyworm (FAW, Spodoptera frugiperda Smith) is an important invasive pest of maize crops in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. To enable timely and effective pest management, accurate monitoring and forecasting of S. frugiperda populations is essential. In this study, we used food attractants to assess seasonal abundance of S. frugiperda in...

For centuries, islands and mountains have incited the interest of naturalists, evolutionary biologists and ecologists. Islands have been the cradle for biogeography and speciation theories, while mountain ranges have informed how population adaptation to thermal floors shapes the distribution of species globally. Islands of varying size and mountai...

Pests and pathogens inflict considerable losses in global agri-food production and regularly trigger the (indiscriminate) use of synthetic pesticides. In the Asia-Pacific, endemic and invasive organisms compromise crop yields, degrade farm profitability and cause undesirable social-environmental impacts. In this study, we systematically assess the...

Globally, insects are undergoing a rapid decline in abundance and diversity. Despite varying degrees of scientific attention across insect taxa and geographies, these patterns can entail an extinction of ecological interactions and a decay of ecosystem functions. In this study, we compared the spatial distribution, abundance and species composition...

Pesticide-centred crop protection is highly carbon-intensive, with product synthesis, distribution and field application generating up to 136.6 MtCO2 equivalent per year. Carbon financing offers an opportunity to bring more natural and sustainable alternatives to scale.

Natural habitats play crucial roles in biodiversity conservation and shape the delivery of ecosystem services in farming landscapes. By providing diverse resources to foraging natural enemies, they can equally enhance biological pest control. In this study, we described the plant community and foliage-dwelling invertebrate predators within non-crop...

Worldwide, hoverflies (Syrphidae: Diptera) provide crucial ecosystem services such as pollination and biological pest control. Although many hoverfly species exhibit migratory behavior, the spatiotemporal facets of these movement dynamics and their ecosystem services implications are poorly understood. In this study, we use long-term (16 yr) trappi...

Synthetic pesticides are core features of input-intensive agriculture and act as major pollutants driving environmental change. Agroecological science has unveiled the benefits of biodiversity for pest control, but research implementation at the farm-level is still difficult. Here we address this implementation gap by using a biblio-metric approach...

In cotton-growing regions of northwestern China, Hippodamia variegata (Goeze) and Propylaea quatuordecimpunctata (Linnaeus) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) are key natural enemies of hemipteran pests. As only H. variegata can be encountered in hot, arid production areas, the thermal responses and climatic adaptability of both species likely differ subs...

Worldwide, hoverflies (Syrphidae: Diptera) provide crucial ecosystem services (ES) such as pollination and biological pest control. Although many hoverfly species exhibit migratory behavior, the spatiotemporal facets of these movement dynamics and their ES implications are poorly understood. In this study, we use long-term (16 yr) trapping records,...

Soil invertebrates contribute to multiple ecosystem services, including pest control, nutrient cycling, and soil structural regulation, yet trophic interactions that determine their diversity and activity in soils remain critically understudied. Here, we systematically review literature (1966–2020) on feeding habits of soil arthropods and macrofaun...

Background: Migration is a widespread phenomenon among many insect species, including herbivorous crop pests. At present, scant information exists on the long-range migration of the polyphagous armyworm, Spodoptera exigua and its underlying climatic determinants (i.e., East Asian or South Asian monsoon circulation). In this study, we employed a po...

Genetically‐modified crops expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins have been widely cultivated, permitting an effective non‐chemical control of major agricultural pests. While their establishment can enable an area‐wide suppression of polyphagous herbivores, no information is available on the impact of Bt crop abandonment in entire landscap...

BACKGROUND The plant bug Lygus pratensis Linnaeus is a widely distributed polyphagous herbivore that increasingly attains outbreak population levels on cotton in northwestern China. Although the sex pheromone of L. pratensis from the United Kingdom has been identified as hexyl butyrate, (E)-2-hexenyl butyrate and (E)-4-oxo-2-hexenal, at a ratio of...

BACKGROUND The on-farm deployment of genetically modified crops may negatively affect non-target arthropods, potentially disrupting food web structure and ecosystem functions. Aphid-parasitoid interactions are well-suited to study those potential impacts in agro-ecosystems. Over the span of eight years, we systematically compared infestation levels...

Interspecific interactions (e.g., competition, predation) are core determinants of insect population evolution, geographical distribution, trophic dynamics and ecosystem functioning. Following its recent invasion of eastern Asia, the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) co-inhabits maize fields with native lepidopteran herb...

Land-use change and agricultural intensification concurrently impact natural enemy (e.g., parasitoid) communities and their associated ecosystem services (ESs), i.e., biological pest control. However, the extent to which (on-farm) parasitoid diversity and food webs mediate landscape-level influences on biological control remains poorly understood....

Accurate monitoring of locust migration is the basis for early warning and emergency control programs. This article integrates laboratory recordings with the use of Ku-band vertical insect radar to assess migration of the yellow-spined bamboo locust Ceracris kiangsu (Orthoptera: Arcypteridae) in the China-Laos border area. Under laboratory conditio...

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) provides an illustration of how crop protection has (or has not) evolved over the past six decades. Throughout this period, IPM has endeavored to promote sustainable forms of agriculture, pursued sharp reductions in synthetic pesticide use, and thereby resolved myriad socio-economic, environmental, and human health...

Since 2016, the fall armyworm (FAW, Spodoptera frugiperda) has invaded large parts of Africa and Asia, impacting millions of hectares of maize crops and thereby posing a major threat to food security. The rapid geographic spread and outbreak dynamics of S. frugiperda are tied to its unique dispersal ability and long-distance migration capability. Y...

Invasive species are a prominent feature of global change. Aside from their direct impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, invasive crop pests routinely trigger environmentally-disruptive actions e.g., unguided applications of synthetic pesticides. Since 2016, the polyphagous fall armyworm (FAW, Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith) has rapi...

Floral resources, such as carbohydrate-rich nectar or pollen, can bolster fitness and raise reproductive output of adult lepidopterans. Here, we used laboratory experiments to assess how those plant-derived foods impact adult fecundity, reproductive physiology and flight performance of an invasive strain of the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda...

Since its 2018 invasion of eastern Asia, the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) has become a key pest in local maize production. Though pesticides have been widely used to mitigate the initial S. frugiperda attack, biological control is receiving ample attention as a desirable, environmentally-sound alternative to chemical...

In December 11, 2018, the fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda invaded China and has since impacted local maize, sorghum and other crops. Here, we draw on laboratory experiments to show how different host crops (i.e., maize, sorghum, wheat and rice) and artificial diet affect larval growth and adult reproduction of one local FAW strain. Larva...

In late 2018, the fall armyworm (FAW) Spodoptera frugiperda Smith (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) made its arrival in China and its populations have since proliferated across most of eastern Asia. While S. frugiperda exhibits a considerable dispersal capacity and engages in long-distance migration, there's only scant information on the species' flight cap...

Biodiversity loss and invasive species are exacting negative economic, environmental and societal impacts. While the monetary aspects of species invasion have been well-assessed, their impacts on human and social livelihood outcomes routinely remain obscure. Here, we empirically demonstrate several important human health and demographic consequence...

BACKGROUND: The papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus, is a highly polyphagous invasive pest that affects more than 200 plants, many of which are of economic importance. We modelled the potential distribution of P. marginatus using CLIMEX, a process-oriented, climate-based niche model. We combined this model with spatial data on irrigation and cro...

The Anthropocene is characterised by pervasive human‐inflicted impacts on a broad range of biota, including insects. In 2019, we reviewed scientific literature quantifying the prevalence and magnitude of insect declines in recent time. Here, drawing upon 40 additional long‐term studies, we add evidence that is consistent with our earlier review and...

The Green Revolution is credited with alleviating famine, mitigating poverty and driving aggregate economic growth since the 1960s. In Asia, high-input technology packages secured a tripling of rice output, with germplasm improvements providing benefits beyond US$4.3 billion yr–1. Here, we unveil the magnitude and macro-economic relevance of parall...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

BACKGROUND The papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus, is a highly polyphagous invasive pest that affects more than 200 plants, many of which are of economic importance. We modelled the potential distribution of P. marginatus using CLIMEX, a process‐oriented, climate‐based niche model. We combined this model with spatial data on irrigation and crop...

Background: The plant bug Lygus pratensis Linnaeus is a widely-distributed polyphagous herbivore that increasingly attains outbreak population levels on cotton in northwestern China. Though the sex pheromone of L. pratensis from the United Kingdom has been identified as hexyl butyrate, (E)-2-hexenyl butyrate and (E)-4-oxo-2-hexenal, at a ratio of...

Food can be health-giving. A global transition towards plant-based diets may equally help curb carbon emissions, slow land-system change and conserve finite resources. Yet, projected benefits of such 'planetary health' diets imperfectly capture the environmental or societal health outcomes tied to food production. Here, we examine pesticide-related...

During the late twentieth century, the “Green Revolution” attained wide-ranging poverty alleviation, food security and improved nutrition across rural Asia. As these achievements were often reached at large environmental costs, “greener” trajectories urgently need to be traced for Asia's agri-food systems. In this sense, agro-ecological and biodive...

Background: The integrated use of plant-derived volatile attractants and synthetic insecticides in attract-and-kill programs could provide a basis for selective and environmentally-acceptable pest management strategies with applicability for use against multiple pests. Ryanoid insecticide, chlorantraniliprole, has been found to present a potential...

We present a synthetic review and expert consultation that assesses the actual risks posed by arthropod pests in four major crops, identifies targets for integrated pest management (IPM) in terms of cultivated land needing pest control and gauges the implementation “readiness” of non-chemical alternatives. Our assessment focuses on the world’s prim...

Many lepidopteran species rely upon active flight to migrate over long distances, thus pursuing ephemeral resources, colonizing new habitats, or escaping adverse meteorological conditions. Though their biology and ecology are often well studied, there is only scant information on their wingbeat frequency (WBF), a key aerodynamic determinant of inse...

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 su...

The cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a limiting pest of many agricultural crops worldwide. At present, in-field populations of H. armigera are routinely monitored using conventional light traps. During 2014, 2015, we conducted field assays to assess the relative attractiveness of narrow-band light-emitting...

The neotropical fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) is an important lepidopteran pest with a broad geographical distribution (Goergen et al. 2015, Early et al. 2018, Sharanabasappa et al. 2018). Larvae of S. frugiperda feed on more than 350 plant species, including several economically-important crops such as maize, sugarcane or...

Vietnam is a large country of Southeast Asia and a globally recognized hotspot of biodiversity. Until recently, only limited surveys had been carried out on the resident Phytoseiidae fauna and presence of 12 species had been documented, with 11 belonging to the sub-family Amblyseiinae and 1 to the sub-family Typhlodrominae. Here, we present results...

Vast numbers of insects annually engage in trans-latitudinal migration and thereby impact structure and functioning of natural and man-made ecosystems. In eastern Asia, long-distance migration has historically been studied for single insect species rather than diverse species complexes. Here, we assessed migration dynamics of multiple economically...

Global warming has pronounced impacts on the physiology, development and behavior of multiple organisms and affects the geographical distribution of arthropods. Yet, little is known about how a heightened ambient temperature influences migratory insects that are globally relevant to agriculture. Here, we quantified the extent to which increases in...