Li Tian-Hao, Wang Xingeng, Desneux Nicolas, Wang Su, Zang Lian-Sheng
State Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide, Key Laboratory of Green Pesticide and Agricultural Bioengineering, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, China.
USDA ARS Beneficial Insects Introduction Research Unit, Newark, 19713, DE, USA.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2025 Feb;100(1):99-112. doi: 10.1111/brv.13130. Epub 2024 Aug 22.
Insects have evolved a spectrum of strategies that facilitate survival in the face of adverse environmental conditions and bottom-up or top-down pressures. The egg is the first stage in the life cycle of most insects. It is not only immobile but in many insects is the stage that survives unfavourable seasons when food resources are unavailable. Eggs are targeted by oophagous natural enemies and also are subject to abiotic stresses. In response to these diverse stresses, insects have developed various egg protection strategies. Females of many insects lay eggs in clusters and then use their own body resources to cover them to provide protection from harsh environments and biotic attack. Such egg protection strategies have allowed some herbivorous insects to thrive in new environments and become serious invasive pests. Females of many insects protect their eggs in other ways (e.g. laying eggs in concealed places, direct parental care) while others do not provide protection at all. Here, we review various egg protective strategies in insects. Our focus is on adaptive ecological mechanisms and temporal variation as well as the benefits and costs of egg coverings. We highlight several case studies on how these egg protective traits might impede biological control of globally important agricultural and forest pests and propose a framework for incorporating egg protective traits into biological control programs especially for invasive insect pests.
昆虫已经进化出一系列策略，以帮助它们在面对不利的环境条件以及自下而上或自上而下的压力时生存下来。卵是大多数昆虫生命周期的第一个阶段。它不仅不能移动，而且在许多昆虫中，卵是在食物资源匮乏的不利季节中存活下来的阶段。卵是食卵性天敌的攻击目标，同时也会受到非生物胁迫。为应对这些多样的胁迫，昆虫已发展出各种卵保护策略。许多昆虫的雌性会将卵聚产在一起，然后利用自身的身体资源覆盖卵，以保护它们免受恶劣环境和生物攻击。这种卵保护策略使一些食草昆虫能够在新环境中茁壮成长，并成为严重的入侵害虫。许多昆虫的雌性通过其他方式保护它们的卵（例如，将卵产在隐蔽的地方、直接进行亲代抚育），而其他一些昆虫则根本不提供保护。在这里，我们综述昆虫的各种卵保护策略。我们关注的是适应性生态机制、时间变化以及卵覆盖物的益处和成本。我们重点介绍了几个案例研究，探讨这些卵保护特性如何可能阻碍对全球重要农业和森林害虫的生物防治，并提出了一个将卵保护特性纳入生物防治计划的框架，特别是针对入侵性害虫。
