Acta Entomologica Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 68 ›› Issue (3): 253-259.doi: 10.16380/j.kcxb.2025.03.001

• INTRODUCTION •     Next Articles

Pollinators: Research progress and prospects

HOU Xin-Tong1, ZHENG Hao2,*, WANG Kai1,*   

  1.  (1. State Key Laboratory of Resource Insects, Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China; 2. College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China)
  • Online:2025-03-20 Published:2025-04-21

Abstract:  Pollinators (including bees, butterflies, beetles, flies, moths, etc.) play an irreplaceable and important role in ecosystems, and they directly affect plant reproduction and ecological balance. With the rapid growth of global population and social development, serious problems such as ecological damage and environmental pollution have occurred and exacerbated challenges for pollinators, such as habitat loss and the use of chemical pesticides, synergistic effects of climate change and pathogen transmission, which have many negative impacts on the stability of ecosystems. Therefore, strengthening research on pollinators and exploring their physiological, morphological, behavioural and ecological characteristics as well as their coevolutionary relationship with plants not only contribute to an indepth understanding of the functional mechanisms of biodiversity and ecosystems, but also provide a fundamental scientific basis for the conservation and use of pollinator resources. This special issue of pollinators presented some latest domestic research progress of pollinators, which may promote exchanges and cooperation in the field of pollinators research and advance the development of the discipline in this field, so as to provide a scientific basis for the construction of China’s ecological civilization and the sustainable development of the environment.

Key words: Pollinators, biodiversity, insect behaviour, insect physiology, genome, biological control technology