Assessing Insect Responses Towards Different Wavelengths of Light: Lessons from Illumination Perspectives

Managing insect pests havgne been extremely crucial in the warming world. There is growing interest to understand the light responses of insect pests to manage them without harming the beneficial ones including pollinators. Technological up-gradation in illumination devices like Compact Fluorescent Lamp, Tubular Fluorescent Lamp, LED (Light Emitting Diode) has improved energy conservation goal for 21^st century. The development from incandescent to white LED opens a new era of illumination, efficient pest control devices that are low energy and cost effective application of lighting. The sensitivity of insects/pests for ultraviolet spectrum plays a significant role in navigation, flight path, behaviour, including excitement. Present study provides an overview on the response of various insects at variety of light wavelengths that can help in managing insect pest populations and reducing the damage. Authors develop a user-friendly wavelength database for developing illumination-based pollinator-friendly prototype. It was observed that >80% of insects show positive photo-taxis, whereas <20% show negative photo-tactic behaviour. This reflected that while adopting advance low power illumination option, it is pertinent to investigate the spectral parameters and its impact on biotic factors especially insect pests and their behaviour (feeding, breeding and using certain area as their habitat). It was also observed that presently available literature to understand the light behaviour of insects and pests is not sufficient for assessment of advance lighting systems and their impact on the insect, pests and pollinators. The study highlights some research gap areas to understand the context in the warming world and relevance of developing light-based prototype to control the menace of insect pests.