Guénaëlle Genson

Accurate and rapid identification of insect species is essential for effective biosurveillance, especially with increasing global trade and the spread of invasive pests. DNA barcoding has become a powerful tool for specimen identification, but its reliability depends heavily on the completeness and accuracy of reference databases. Many existing databases remain fragmentary and contain poorly annotated or misidentified records. Here, we present a curated DNA barcode reference library of 4097 DNA barcodes representing 169 species of longhorned beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), a group frequently intercepted in European biosurveillance programmes using multi‐pheromone traps. By prioritizing taxonomic validation and data quality, this library provides a robust resource for accurate specimen identification. Beyond biosurveillance, it also supports ecological research, as cerambycids are valuable bioindicators of forest health. Our results highlight the critical role of expert curation in ensuring the accuracy of barcode libraries used for both pest monitoring and biodiversity assessment.

A new exotic insect in mainland France: first record of Torpedo Bug Siphanta acuta (Walker, 1851) and new insights into introduced populations attributed to this species (Hemiptera Flatidae). Siphanta acuta is reported for the first time from France. Habitus and genitalia are illustrated. The species is compared with Acanalonia conica (Say, 1830), another recently introduced invasive species with which it can be confused. A comparison of the DNA barcodes of the French specimens with those from Portugal, the Azores, Australia and other countries, highlights misidentifications of invasive Siphanta populations around the world.

The pentatomid tribe Strachiini includes numerous crop pests, notably the genus Eurydema Laporte, 1833, which comprises Palaearctic species feeding on cruciferous plants. In a context of reduced pesticide use and increased biological invasions, the damage caused by Strachiini to European crops has increased over the past few years. Rapid identification of these pests at all stages of their development is therefore becoming crucial. In this context, we investigated whether DNA barcoding can reliably distinguish all developmental stages of Western European Strachiini species and invasive congeners. We analysed 325 specimens collected worldwide, using both newly generated in-home and publicly available COI sequences. Species boundaries were assessed through distance-based and phylogenetic tree-based methods, including Neighbor-Joining (NJ) and Maximum Likelihood (ML). Morphological identification of Strachiini was generally consistent and reached a consensus, except for a few challenging species pairs such as Eurydema fieberi Schummel, 1837 / E. rotundicollis (Dohrn, 1860) and Eurydema spectabilis Horváth, 1882 / E. eckerleini Josifov, 1961. We therefore used as reference material in this study, specimens preserved in institutional or private collections, consensually identified by several generations of specialists. Our results confirms that Eurydema species of agronomic importance and their related invasive congeners can be reliably identified through DNA barcoding except for several species within the large genus Eurydema, for which discrepancies between morphological and molecular identifications were highlighted. A curated set of validated sequences has been deposited in the BOLD Systems (https://id.boldsystems.org/), GenBank, NCBI (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) and ARTHEMIS databases (https://arthemisdb.supagro.inrae.fr/) to support accurate molecular identification. The taxonomic issues highlighted in the large genus Eurydema are discussed. They will require further investigation and may lead to necessary taxonomic revisions, hence, some of these (e.g. involving the widespread pest species E. ornata) could have agronomic implications.

The evolution of host specialization and feeding habits in non‐pollinating fig wasps remains poorly understood. This study investigates these dynamics within the wasp genus Idarnes , which exhibits diverse life strategies and degrees of host specificity. We reconstructed the phylogeny of 57 Idarnes species using four genetic markers—two mitochondrial, one nuclear and one ribosomal—and performed ancestral state reconstructions to elucidate the evolution of host specialization. Our analyses reveal that host monophagy is ancestral in Idarnes , with oligophagy evolving independently in several lineages. Oligophagous species are more prevalent in kleptoparasitic compared to gall‐inducing lineages. Early gallers—which are wasps that colonize figs during the pre‐receptive stage of development—are predominantly monophagous, while some oligophagous species occur in the galler lineage that uses flower ovaries at the fig receptive phase. The relative ovipositor length correlates with the number of host species visited by kleptoparasite species, suggesting morphological adaptations play a role in host specialization. In the gall‐inducing lineages, the use of multiple host species seems not primarily constrained by the ovipositor size but possibly by the capacity of the wasp to induce galls in a non‐typical host species. This study provides valuable insights into the mechanisms driving host specialization in fig wasps, enhancing our understanding of this intricate insect‐plant system.

The authors report the first records of the generalist predator Orius (Dimorphella) maxidentex (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae) from different cropping systems in Senegal (West Africa) and propose fast and accurate identification based on morphological traits and molecular analyses. Orius maxidentex is a frequent and abundant predatory bug in Senegalese agro-systems, especially, millet, maize and tomato fields. It is likely to play an important role in regulating the populations of several pests, and its potential involvement in natural pest control in these cropping systems is discussed.