Monitoring and Surveillance of Forest Insects

Abstract

Monitoring of insect populations is widely used in entomology in the context of biodiversity studies, as an aspect of pest management, and for the detection of non-native invasive species (e.g. Prasad and Prabhakar 2012; Rabaglia et al. 2019; Seibold et al. 2019). Here we focus on monitoring and surveillance of forest insect ‘pests’ as well as the detection of non-native invasive species. In general, monitoring is undertaken to (i) obtain information on the presence or abundance of particular species; (ii) study their phenology (e.g. oviposition or flight periods); (iii) predict pest population size, spread and damage; or (iv) to determine if pest management activities such as insecticide treatments or mating disruption are required.