Trait selection in production insects—An introduction to the issue and a review of responses to artificial selection

Abstract

Production insects are cultured by humans to yield an agent or product of (commercial) interest. Four main categories are as follows: insects produced for biological pest control, for sterile insect technique, for human food and animal feed, and for technical products and services. Trait selection in production insects refers to the choice of traits that are important for the insect producer, or it refers to the improvement of a production trait through insect breeding. This special journal issue comprises a series of articles on trait selection, dealing with the outcomes of selection programmes as well as the choice of traits to select. Although the traits of interest occasionally differ substantially between production areas, methodologies for trait improvement may overlap and results of studies will be informative across fields. In this introduction, we first discuss the main aspects of trait selection, and we briefly summarize all contributions to this special issue. Then we systematically review the literature on effect sizes and correlated responses of artificial selection for trait improvement in production insects. We finish with several general conclusions and recommendations for future research, based on our literature review as well as the articles in this journal issue.