The coffee plantations of late nineteenth-century Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) were rocked by a series of crises, including the appearance of numerous insect pests. Scholars have demonstrated that nineteenth-century plantations were both ecologically vulnerable and reliant on exploited labour, with entomology deployed in their defence across the British Empire. Yet this paper argues that, despite its global reach, colonial entomology was sometimes conducted by individuals in pursuit of such parochial concerns as their local reputation and social standing. This case study examines the beetles of Ceylon through the eyes of Scottish plantation owner and amateur naturalist Robert Camperdown Haldane. His 1881 tract All About Grub erroneously identified the island's beetles as relatives of the European cockchafer (Melolontha melolontha). Although Haldane was a well-travelled individual who adopted a global science, he was also a product of Ceylon's plantation society: touchy about his social status and dismissive of his Indian labourers. The insular priorities of individuals or tight-knit communities could direct an enterprise with superficially global characteristics.

Weed science is an important component of pest management. Weeds cause approximately 12% loss in United States crop production, reduce crop quality, poison livestock, and adversely affect human health, recreation, and transportation. Herbicides comprise approximately 65% of pesticide expenditures, whereas insecticides and fungicides each comprise less than 20%. The total effect of weeds, including crop losses and costs of control, in the United States was estimated in 1994 to be $20 billion annually. A survey was prepared and mailed to weed scientists at universities and experiment stations in the northeastern United States to determine the number of faculty positions and course offerings devoted to weed science. There are approximately five times as many entomologists and more than three times as many plant pathologists as weed scientists at universities in the northeast. There are more than six times as many graduate students currently in entomology and more than four times as many in plant pathology compared with weed science. Few undergraduate courses in weed science are taught, and most universities have no graduate classes in weed science. There are almost seven times as many undergraduate entomology courses and more than twice as many plant pathology courses as weed science classes in this region. There are more than 17 times as many graduate entomology courses and more than 15 times as many plant pathology courses compared with weed science graduate classes. There are no departments devoted solely to weed science in the northeast, whereas entomology and plant pathology departments are both common. Most universities have little to no faculty assigned to aquatic, forestry, noncrop weed control, weed ecology, or laboratory trials, and numbers assigned to agronomic and horticultural crop weed management are limited. Additional university resources are needed if weed science research, teaching, and extension efforts are to meet the priority needs in weed management.

Weeds are one of the main limiting factors in crop production, causing billions of dollars in annual global losses through degraded agricultural and silvicultural productivity. Weeds also reduce access to land and water, impair aesthetics, and disrupt human activities and well-being. The number of positions devoted to weed science teaching, research, and extension at 76 land-grant institutions across the United States and its territories was determined and compared with that for plant pathology and entomology. The number of classes and graduate students in these disciplines at those institutions was also determined. There are more than four times as many entomologists and more than three times as many plant pathologists as weed scientists at land-grant institutions. There are approximately five times as many graduate students currently in entomology and almost three times as many in plant pathology compared with weed science. There are approximately five times as many entomology and two and a half times as many plant pathology undergraduate classes compared with weed science classes. These differences increase when graduate courses are considered. Most land-grant universities have either none or few graduate classes in weed science. There are more than six times as many graduate entomology courses and more than five times as many plant pathology courses compared with weed science graduate classes. There are no departments devoted solely to weed science, whereas entomology and plant pathology departments are both common. Most universities have little to no faculty assigned to ornamental, fruit, aquatic, or forestry weed control. Number of faculty assigned to vegetable, turf, non-crop, ecology, and basic/laboratory studies in weed science are also limited. Additional university resources are needed if weed science research, teaching, and extension efforts are to meet the priority needs for the management of weeds in the agricultural, natural resources, and urban ecosystems.

The CILSS (French acronym for “Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel”) regional crop protection training centre in Niger provides a 2-year training programme in crop protection for middle-level field technicians as one of its major activities. The training is open to candidates from all the nine CILSS member countries. It deals with all aspects of plant protection. The success of this training programme depends to a great extent, on a well-formulated and objective-oriented programme catered to the backgrounds and needs of the trainees. As insect pests are an important limiting factor in agricultural production in the Sahel, the entomology subjects constitute an important part of the programme. This paper describes the contents of the entomology programme and strategies and constraints in its delivery. The future role of applied research in supporting and strengthening this programme is also outlined.

The formation of the International Advisory Council for Biosystematic Services in Entomology (IACBSE) in Hamburg at the XVIIth International Congress of Entomology in 1984 is described and its composition and long-term objectives are stated. These include fostering the development of biosystematic research and identification services on a world basis by co-ordinating and assisting interactions and exchange of information between organizations and individuals, and by establishing a series of Working Groups on major projects. The main user needs for biosystematic services are also summarized. The particularly important needs of medical, agricultural and forestry entomology are emphasized and other needs for the support of faunal surveys, conservation, ecology, physiology, biogeography, litigation, amateur and general public interest are noted.