Adriana Jeannette Najar‐Rodriguez

Current global estimates are that 40% of food produced for human consumption is being wasted, amounting to 2.5 billion tonnes of food waste each year. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 aims to respond to this by 2030. In addition, Aotearoa-New Zealand is equally under pressure to minimise food waste and greenhouse gas emissions and has committed to its own Emissions Reduction Plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Insect bioconversion has emerged as a promising, novel and sustainable strategy for upcycling large amounts of organic waste into added-value products such as feed for livestock, industrial compounds including biofuel and chitin, and soil amendments/fertilisers for improving soil quality and productivity. This review explores the research landscape and commercial potential of insect bioconversion in Aotearoa-New Zealand, focusing on the black soldier fly ( Hermetia illucens L.; BSF)—a tropical species renowned for its efficiency in bioconversion and its nutrient-rich larvae. We examine current research efforts to valorise agricultural and food waste streams in Aotearoa-New Zealand, assess the economic viability and energy requirements of insect bioconversion in temperate climates, compare its environmental footprint against conventional animal feed production, identify key scientific and technological challenges, and discuss regulatory, infrastructural, and market barriers that must be overcome to establish a viable BSF-based bioconversion industry. By highlighting knowledge gaps, this review also aims to inform future research directions and policy frameworks that could support circular bioeconomy transitions in Aotearoa-New Zealand and beyond.

This editorial explores how harnessing the biological potential of BSF can help valorize organic waste streams. It examines the current progress in insect genetics (i.e. artificial selection and biomanufacturing) and the critical research and regulatory challenges that must be addressed to fully realize the potential of these insect-based solutions.

Examination of imported commodities by trained inspectors searching for pest organisms is a common practice that phytosanitary regulatory agencies use to mitigate biosecurity risks along trade pathways. To investigate the effects of target size and color on the efficacy of these visual assessments, we affixed square decals to polystyrene models of mandarins. Sample units of 100 model fruit containing up to 10 marked models were examined by inspectors. Six sizes in six shades of brown were tested across two prevalence levels. The experiment consisted of five inspection rounds where 11 inspectors examined 77 sample units within an allocated time. The probability that decals were detected increased with mark size and color contrast. Smaller, low-contrast marks were mainly missed. The prevalence rate did not affect the detectability. Through the experiment, the false-positive rate dropped from 6% to 3%, whereas false-negative rates were constant throughout. Large, dark targets were readily found with a mean recall of >90%, whereas small, pale marks had a mean recall of 9%. Increased experience made inspectors more competent at recognizing decals, reducing the false positive rate. However, constant false-negative rates indicate that experience did not prevent inspectors from overlooking targets they could not perceive.

Elevated concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ), a consequence of anthropogenic global change, may profoundly interfere with natural ecological processes, perhaps even interactions across trophic levels. Even the survival prospects of organisms at higher trophic levels could be affected, as follows. We showed previously that the endoparasitoid Diaeretiella rapae , a specialized parasitoid of the cabbage aphid Brevicoryne brassicae , exposed to elevated CO ₂ concentrations (800 ppm) for up to 10 weeks, performed far worse (e.g., lower survival and parasitism rates) compared with ambient CO ₂ (400 ppm). To investigate whether these CO ₂ ‐related effects in the parasitoids were mediated by changes in the quality of the aphids as hosts, we measured the nutritional and energy content of cabbage aphids under the above conditions. Specifically, we measured lipid, protein and water‐soluble carbohydrate concentrations. We tested the hypothesis that when insects feed from plants with altered nutritional content, they incur a cost in dealing with such biotic stresses. That cost reduces their metabolic well‐being and, thus, reduces their nutritional status with respect to parasitoids developing at their expense. We found that CO ₂ had significant effects on aphid body mass (i.e., wet weight) and chemical composition, with elevated CO ₂ concentrations reducing aphid mass by more than 50%. Aphids grown under elevated CO ₂ also had significantly reduced soluble carbohydrates but significantly more lipids, on a weight‐per‐weight basis, than aphids grown under ambient CO ₂ . A significant decrease in total energy reserves (i.e., the sum of total proteins, lipids, and water‐soluble carbohydrates) thus typified aphids grown under elevated CO ₂ . Our results contribute to explaining the impaired performance of the aphid B. brassicae and its parasitoid D. rapae previously reported under elevated CO ₂ , and provide evidence that under future climate change, host plants might affect the development and performance of parasitoids through their impacts on the nutritional quality of their herbivorous hosts.

Background: Halyomorpha halys Stål (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), is a highly polyphagous invasive pest worldwide. It is also known to be a nuisance pest as it enters artificial structures, including human habitats, to overwinter and releases very unpleasant odours when disturbed. Overwintering populations can be trapped and killed collectively by targeting the aggregation behaviour of BMSB adults. However, efficient traps for catching overwinter population have not been yet developed and validated. A novel and effective trapping method would be to design shelter traps in the field that entice and mass-trap overwintering BMSB as they initiate to display their typical aggregation behavior and seek shelter in the traps. Methods: In this study conducted in Northwestern China, we designed different BMSB overwintering shelter traps made of different materials (i.e., wood or corflute) and lock types (with/without lock, pyrometric or strip door lock) and tested their efficacy at two different sites and three different locations within sites. We also tested the efficacy of the traps with or without the presence of the BMSB aggregation pheromone. Results: Although trapped BMSB numbers were generally low across all traps tested, the black corflute trap was found to attract the highest average number of BMSB males and females, followed by the wooden-made trap, the bee-hive box and finally the wooden-made locked trap, which attracted the lowest numbers of BMSB. The trapping efficacy was found to not be affected by experimental sites or locations nor by the presence of the BMSB aggregation pheromone lure. Conclusions: Our results showed that traps made of black corflute with slit doors were generally preferred by overwintering BMSB. This preliminary proof-of-concept study provides valuable information for further improvement of novel overwintering traps that could be used to mass trap BMSB overwintering populations.

Global trade facilitates the introduction of invasive species that can cause irreversible damage to agriculture and the environment, as well as stored food products. The raisin moth (Cadra figulilella) is an invasive pest that poses a significant threat to fruits and dried foods. Climate change may exacerbate this threat by expanding moth’s distribution to new areas. In this study, we used CLIMEX and MaxEnt niche modeling tools to assess the potential global distribution of the raisin moth under current and future climate change scenarios. Our models projected that the area of suitable distribution for the raisin moth could increase by up to 36.37% by the end of this century under high emission scenario. We also found that excessive precipitation decreased the probability of raisin moth establishment and that the optimum temperature range for the species during the wettest quarter of the year was 0–18 °C. These findings highlight the need for future research to utilize a combined modeling approach to predict the distribution of the raisin moth under current and future climate conditions more accurately. Our results could be used for environmental risk assessments, as well as to inform international trade decisions and negotiations on phytosanitary measures with regards to this invasive species.

The increasing diversity of potential biosecurity threats makes their diagnosis a complicated and evolving area, requiring moving beyond traditional taxonomic species identification. New biosecurity diagnostic tools should provide a greater depth of information on threat biology to enable accurate risk assessment for the more efficient and effective deployment of biosecurity resources. Metabolomics is amongst the new approaches being explored for biosecurity diagnostics, where a broad spectrum of metabolites might signify relevant biological characteristics of an intercepted organism. Examples of these characteristics are physiological signatures of age, reproductive status, geographic origin, pathogen status of potential invertebrate vectors, and the distinction between diseases and abiotic plant stress symptoms. This broad-based approach is attractive, where several biological characteristics of an organism can be assessed with a single measurement. However, it can be impractical as several hundred biological replicates of the organism are needed to build a robust model of a species. New approaches such as mass spectral fingerprinting substantially reduce the time taken for metabolomics measurements, and more sophisticated modelling methods aid feasibility. Promising data are emerging for metabolomics and metabolite fingerprinting for potential biosecurity applications. We discuss the possibilities and potential uses for these new tools for post-detection decisions, diagnosis, and biosecurity.