Cactus species are well represented in arid and semiarid environments, where they sometimes even dominate the landscape, forming true cactus forests. In this review, we summarize for the first time the importance of cactus species as a wood resource for a neglected saproxylic (dead wood-dependent) entomofauna associated with decomposing and decomposed tissues in arid and semiarid environments. The complex decomposition process of cactus species is discussed in depth. We provide a checklist of the entomofauna living in decaying and decayed cacti, in which insects represented 93% of the species recorded. In particular, Coleoptera (41.5%) and Diptera (43.8%) orders together represented 85% of the insect species recorded. The family Drosophilidae made up 50% of studied Diptera species because the drosophilid–cactus–yeast complex has been widely studied during recent decades. However, we found that during the last 2 decades, there has been increasing interest in investigating the diversity of arthropods in this saproxylic habitat in Mexico, with a special focus on Syrphidae (Diptera) and Coleoptera, the former for their role in the decomposition process. Disentangling the role of the insects associated with decaying cactus is a challenge when it comes to understanding the function of xeric saprophagous insects in this environment. One frontier in this research area is to find whether decomposed stems in xeric soils would act as “islands” of fertility due to the amount of nitrogen which could be recuperated from these microecosystems. Further research is needed to understand the ecological succession of the entomofauna playing a role in the decomposition process of cactus species in semiarid environments.

Graphical Abstract

Pollinator nutrition is a highly complex subject that we are just starting to unravel, from the multidimensional nature of bee forage (pollen and nectar) to how the abiotic environment can affect the resources available to bees. Doing so is of utmost importance, as improving pollinator resource availability and nutrition is one of the proposed mechanisms to improve populations and pollinator health. However, landscape change has changed the resources naturally available for pollinators. Farmland and cropping systems create a unique nutritional landscape for pollinators, with agroecosystems typically containing few crops dominating a landscape along with natural corridors containing noncrop plants. The types of crops planted and the surrounding landscape will ultimately affect the nutritional landscape bees have access to. Even the management practices in agriculture and how pests are controlled will, directly and indirectly, affect bee health and nutrition. Hence, a better understanding of bee nutrition in agricultural ecosystems is warranted. This review synthesizes research on bee nutritional ecology and the agricultural landscapes to advance our understanding of bee health in agriculture.

Graphical Abstract

Over the past 2 decades, digital photography has grown increasingly accessible. This has ushered in a golden age of community science, where nonspecialists share natural history observations from across the globe via digital media. Importantly, these observations are accessible to researchers, who can readily share expertise directly with the community and connect observations and observers with research projects. This has fueled a rising number of publications combining specialist and nonspecialist observations, which occasionally make national and international headlines. Entomology has embraced this trend, but the scope and impact are not clear. A review of its effect on the field is therefore warranted. Herein, we review and analyze publications that incorporated information from photographs shared on photo-sharing websites. In total, 2,123 publications that incorporated information from 77 photo-sharing websites were examined. Seven websites accounted for 66% of the publication citations. 84.6% of publications focused on data from the Holarctic ecoregion (56.2% Palearctic and 28.4% Nearctic). Forty-six arthropod orders were represented, but the Big Five—Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera, and Diptera—accounted for 75% of all publications. We divide the publications into 28 discovery and use categories, review how community photograph data has been used within each category, and provide examples of categories utilized in nonentomology natural history fields, which we hope will provide inspiration and spur future research. We also discuss benefits and considerations when using such data—including the accuracy of identifications, inherent biases, and digital data impermanence—and suggest best practices to follow.

Digital specimens collected by community members are a largely untapped source of entomological data. By mining and curating data from photo observations uploaded to online community data repositories, researchers can utilize this wealth of information to address questions about predator–prey interactions, phenotypic variation within species, plant–pollinator interactions, and a host of other topics. We mined data from photo observations on the community science website iNaturalist to investigate patterns in host plant availability and affiliation by 2 species of soldier beetles, Chauliognathus marginatus (F.) and Chauliognathus pensylvanicus (De Geer). Chauliognathus marginatus was observed with white flowers more than expected based on their potential availability, while C. pensylvanicus was observed with yellow flowers over all other flower colors and more than expected based on their potential availability. Communities of flowers available to, and observed with, C. marginatus and C. pensylvanicus differed significantly at the family and genus levels. To our knowledge, this is the first study to utilize a dataset mined and curated from community science photo observations to address species-specific behavior and ecology questions. With appropriate study design and analytical methods, these types of data could prove invaluable in future investigations of a variety of entomological and ecological questions.

Meloetyphlus Waterhouse is a monotypic genus of Meloidae ascribed to the tribe Tetraonycini, subfamily Meloinae. As for most blister beetles, its first-instar larvae (or triungulins) are parasites of bees, but M. fuscatus Waterhouse is the only species known to parasitize members of the tribe Euglossini (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Apinae). Despite being widely distributed in Central and South America, its presence in Colombia has never been confirmed. In this article, we document the occurrence of this genus in Colombia providing the first certain record for this country. In addition, some aspects of its parasitization of Eulaema nigrita Lepeletier are reported and illustrated with macrophotographs and a video. By the means of drawings and SEM micrographs, we provide the most detailed description of the first-instar larva of M. fuscatus to date and a comparison with the triungulin of the closely related Tetraonyx fulvus (LeConte). Finally, we investigated the phylogenetic position of Meloetyphlus using molecular data, to support its attribution to the tribe Tetraonycini.