Insect Control: Biological and Synthetic Agents - Index of

PREFACE
When Elsevier published the seven-volume series Comprehensive Molecular Insect Science in 2005, the
original series was targeted mainly at libraries and larger institutions. While this gave access to researchers
and students of those institutions, it has left open the opportunity for an individual volume on a popular area
in entomology: insect control. Such a volume is of considerable value to an additional audience in the insect
research community — individuals who either had not had access to the larger work or desired a more
focused treatment of these topics.
As two of the three editors of the Comprehensive series, we felt that it was time to update the field of insect
control by providing an updated volume targeted specifically at professional researchers and students. In
editing the original series, we expended a great deal of effort in finding the best available authors for each of
those chapters. In most instances, authors who contributed to Comprehensive Molecular Insect Science also
provided updates on Insect Control. The authors carefully reviewed recent data and cited the most relevant
literature. We as coeditors reviewed and edited the final addenda.
The chapters incorporate all major insecticide classes in use for insect control, with the exception of
organophosphates and carbamates. Pyrethroids continue to contribute to insect control in agriculture, and
more recently have seen increased use in bed nets for the control of mosquito-borne diseases, such as
malaria, and an update is provided in the addendum to ‘‘Pyrethroid Insecticides and Resistance Mechanisms.’’
The chapters ‘‘Neonicotinoid Insecticides,’’ ‘‘Indoxycarb – Chemistry, Mode of Action, Use and
Resistance,’’ ‘‘Spinosyns,’’ and ‘‘Insect Growth Regulators and Development Disrupting Insecticides’’ cover
newer classes of insecticides in use. ‘‘Azadirachtin, a Natural Product in Insect Control’’ deals with a plant
extract that has also seen increased use. A number of chapters deal with viral, bacterial, and fungal control
of insects, and these topics are discussed in the chapters titled ‘‘Genetically Modified Baculoviruses for Pest
Insect Control,’’ ‘‘Bacillus thuringiensis, with Resistance Mechanisms,’’ ‘‘Bacillus sphaericus Taxonomy and
Genetics,’’ and ‘‘Entomopathogenic Fungi and Their Role in Regulation of Insect Populations.’’ Finally,
‘‘Insect Transformation’’ outlines critical issues on using transformed insects for control programs. Additional
chapters of interest are also available in a companion volume titled Insect Pharmacology.
Several years of effort was expended by both of us and our colleagues in choosing topics for the sevenvolume
series, in the selection of authors, and in the editing of the original manuscripts and galley proofs.
Each and every chapter in those volumes was important, and even essential, to make it a ‘‘Comprehensive’’
series. Nevertheless, we feel strongly that having this volume with the updated material and many references
on these important aspects of insect control will be of great help to professional insect biologists, to graduate
students conducting research for advanced degrees, and even to undergraduate research students contemplating
an advanced degree in insect science.
– LAWRENCE I. GILBERT,
Department of Biology,
University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill
– SARJEET S. GILL,
Cell Biology and Neuroscience,
University of California,
Riverside