Insect Conservation Behavior

Behavior is the means through which animals interact with the environment and with each other. As such, behavior must be central to conservation efforts. In no example is this more clear than with the large blue butterfly (Phengaris arion) in the United Kingdom: failure to understand its life history and species interactions led to its local extinction, even with habitat restoration efforts. Despite the clear importance of behavior, conservation behavior is often under-discussed even in situations where the natural history of a species is well understood. We propose exploring conservation behavior within insects, and doing so with a wide diversity of species and geographic locations. As insects have often served as models to advance theory, so they may serve as models to advance conservation.

Our goals for this collection are three-fold. First, we aim to present the latest in insect behavior research, and how such research can be applied to conservation. Second, we will promote diverse authors from diverse geographic locations. Third, we will facilitate an educational/mentoring experience for early career professionals by enlisting senior professionals to work with their students and/or post-docs on the publication process from manuscript submission, to review, to publication.

We welcome submissions on the following topics:

1. What do we know? Reviews and mini-reviews on what we already know about insect behavior and conservation.
2. What are we learning? Original research articles on what we are currently learning about insect behavior and how such behavior can be applied to conservation. Each article should include an extended introduction to serve as a mini-review on insect conservation behavior in the relevant system.
3. Where are we going? Opinion and perspective articles on how we can apply recent research on insect behavior to insect conservation.