The Entomology and Botany unit's expertise covers all plant-parasitic and beneficial (i.e. which help protect crops) insects and mites, as well as invasive plants, crop weeds and all plants found in agrosystems (particularly plants in the margins around fields). It plays a major role in the discovery and assessment of pest risks related to new species introduced in France and Europe. The unit is located on a campus where it benefits from exchanges with other scientific bodies (INRAE, CIRAD, IRD, Institut Agro Montpellier) and has access to exceptional documentary resources and insect collections. 

Internationally, it is actively involved in the work of the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO), particularly on its panels on entomological diagnosis and invasive alien plants, and as a member of the expert working group that examines pest risk analyses.

Reference activities

Through its national reference mandate, the unit is responsible for identifying virtually all the insects and mites intercepted at borders or collected during official surveillance in France. Using both morphobiometric and molecular identification methods, it helps to detect new introductions at an early stage. In addition to its national mandates, in 2019, the unit was entrusted with the mandate of European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) for insects and mites, in consortium with the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). The unit focuses especially on priority species for the European Union, for example the emerald ash borer beetle Agrilus planipennis, and the fruit fly species Bactrocera dorsalis and B. zonata. In conjunction with EPPO, the EURL also works to enrich the Q-Bank database of reference DNA sequences (barcodes), a tool that supports reliable molecular identification of the quarantine pests listed in the European Plant Health Regulation. As a reminder, a quarantine pest is an organism with major pest status which is not yet present in a given area, or present in the area but only found in limited  and circumscribed zones. Its introduction and spread are totally prohibited, and EU countries must introduce mandatory surveillance and control measures if it is detected.

Surveillance support activities

The unit actively contributes to the surveillance of new emerging pests and invasive plants. Working in conjunction with the phytopharmacovigilance mission, the unit carries out and coordinates the statistical analysis of botanical and entomological (on beetles) data from the 500 ENI biovigilance network, in order to detect unintended effects of agricultural practices on plants and beetles. It makes its data available to the epidemiological surveillance platform for plant health (ESV) as needed and provides it with scientific support in analytical fields. By alerting the Ministry of Agriculture to potential hazards due to the entry and/or establishment in France of alien arthropods or plants, the unit plays a major role in anticipating risks.

Research activities

The unit supervises theses in the areas of entomology and botany. It also participates in national and international research projects, dealing for example with the development of high-throughput molecular diagnostic tools in entomology and the investigation of functional traits explaining the success or failure of invasive plants (common ragweed, Japanese hop, etc.). The Entomology team carries out work in systematics and species characterisation (invasive scale insects, Lepidoptera larvae, etc.), as well as in the biology of invasion (the fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis, the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda, etc.) or transmission (the Xylella fastidiosa bacterium, whitefly and aphid vectors, etc.), with the aim of improving diagnosis, detection and epidemiological risk anticipation. The Botany team analyses the risks associated with problem crop weeds using a One Health approach, exploring their interactions with pollinators, beneficial insects and pests, as well as their impact on agroecosystems. Lastly, it assesses the effects of sustainable management strategies aimed at reducing the use of herbicides.