Diet is one of the most common influences on parasitoid reproductive traits. The life span, mating ability, fecundity, fertility and sex ratio of parasitoids can be affected by the quality of the adult diet. In the field, parasitoids can rely on different hosts and non-host nutrient sources, such as floral and extrafloral nectar, hemipteran honeydew and pollen, and various artificial diets have been used in mass rearing. In addition, some parasitoid species obtain nutrients by feeding on their host while adult (host feeding). In this review, we summarize current knowledge on the impact of the adult diet on the reproductive behavior of hymenopteran and dipteran parasitoids, with a particular focus on longevity, offspring production and host searching traits. First, we focus on food preferences and learning abilities of parasitoids to discriminate high-quality diets.\ud Second, we analyze the impact of the adult diet on longevity, examining different natural and artificial food sources as well as the effect of their concentration and frequency. Third, we highlight the impact of the adult diet on host foraging. Fourth, we review the impact of adult diet on parasitoid offspring with special reference to (1) egg load, maturation and resorption, (2) parasitism and (3) progeny production and sex ratio. Finally, a number of implications for biological control and integrated pest management are discussed

Mosquito control programs are facing important and timely challenges, including the\ud recent outbreaks of novel arbovirus, the development of resistance in several Culicidae species,\ud and the rapid spreading of highly invasive mosquitoes worldwide. Current control tools mainly rely\ud on the employment of (i) synthetic or microbial pesticides, (ii) insecticide-treated bed nets, (iii) adult\ud repellents, (iv) biological control agents against mosquito young instars (mainly fishes, amphibians\ud and copepods) (v) Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), (vi) ‘‘boosted SIT”, (vii) symbiont-based methods\ud and (viii) transgenic mosquitoes. Currently, none of these single strategies is fully successful. Novel\ud eco-friendly strategies to manage mosquito vectors are urgently needed. The plant-mediated fabrication\ud of nanoparticles is advantageous over chemical and physical methods, since it is cheap,\ud single-step, and does not require high pressure, energy, temperature, or the use of highly toxic chemicals.\ud In the latest years, a growing number of plant-borne compounds have been proposed for efficient\ud and rapid extracellular synthesis of metal nanoparticles effective against mosquitoes at very\ud low doses (i.e. 1–30 ppm). In this review, we focused on the promising potential of greenfabricated\ud nanoparticles as toxic agents against mosquito young instars, and as adult oviposition\ud deterrents. Furthermore, we analyzed current evidences about non-target effects of these nanocomposites\ud used for mosquito control, pointing out their moderate acute toxicity for non-target aquatic\ud organisms, absence of genotoxicity at the doses tested against mosquitoes, and the possibility to\ud boost the predation rates of biological control agents against mosquitoes treating the aquatic environment\ud with ultra-low doses (e.g. 1–3 ppm) of green-synthesized nanoparticles, which reduce the\ud motility of mosquito larvae. Challenges for future research should shed light on (i) the precise\ud mechanism(s) of action of green-fabricated metal nanoparticles, (ii) their fate in the aquatic\ud environment, and (iii) the possible toxicity of residual silver ions in the aquatic ecosystems, (iv) the standardization of chemical composition of botanical products used as sources of reducing and\ud capping metabolites, (v) the optimization of the green nanosynthetic routes, in order to develop\ud large-scale production of eco-friendly nanomosquitocides

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Evidence of the impact of climate change on natural and agroecosystems is nowadays established worldwide, especially in the Mediterranean Basin, an area known to be very susceptible to heatwaves and drought. Olea europaea is one of the main income sources for the Mediterranean agroeconomy, and it is considered a sensitive indicator of the climate change degree because of the tight relationship between its biology and temperature trend. Despite the economic importance of the olive, few studies are nowadays available concerning the consequences that global heating may have on its major pests. Among the climatic parameters, temperature is the key one influencing the relation between the olive tree and its most threatening parasites, including Bactrocera oleae and Prays oleae. Therefore, several prediction models are based on this climatic parameter (e.g., cumulative degree day models). Even if the use of models could be a promising tool to improve pest control strategies and to safeguard the Mediterranean olive patrimony, they are not currently available for most O. europaea pests, and they have to be used considering their limits. This work stresses the lack of knowledge about the biology and the ethology of olive pests under a climate change scenario, inviting the scientific community to focus on the topic.