Resources

PR and Educational Material

PR and Educational Material

Insect-IMP logo:

Logo

How to acknowledge the Action? Please, use the following sentence and our logo found on the link above.
We acknowledge the funding from the COST Action 22140 Insect-IMP: Improved Knowledge Transfer for Sustainable Insect Breeding.

Need a sentence to describe the Action?
The Insect-IMP network aims to support insect genetic improvement to enhance food security and sustainability while reducing environmental impact.

Press Release list:

Explore our latest press releases and educational resources. Stay informed with updates and enhance your knowledge with our curated materials.

Power point Presentations

Communication kit

Infographics

We created these infographics to help you better understand key aspects of insect breeding, genetic improvement, and their benefits for sustainability. Explore our visual guides and gain insights into this growing field.

Training school material

Discover our comprehensive training resources tailored to meet your educational needs.

The material from the training school on mating control (Ljubljana, May 2025)

The course consisted of three parts:

1) Honeybee mating control and demonstration of artificial insemination, material available here
2) Insect anatomy and gender identification, material available here
3) Lady bug anatomy and dissection, material available here

The material from the training school on quantitative genetics (Athens, January 2025)

This course introduces the main quantitative genetics concepts used in selective breeding.

The course consisted of four parts:
1) Genetic relatedness and inbreeding
2) Sources of variation, heritability, and repeatability
3) Correlation and regression
4) Selection and estimation of breeding values, and selection index

The material is available here.

The material from the training school on population simulation (Athens, January 2025)

This course demonstrates how to simulate populations and breeding programmes with the software AlphSimR (Gaynor et al., 2021).

The course consists of four parts:
1) Introduction to the course, AlphaSimR, and simulations
2) Simulate DNA and phenotypes (traits)
3) Selection simulation and response to selection
4) Simulating a breeding programme

Due to the size of material only, the material is available in Part1 (Lecture 1&2) and Part2 (Lecture 3&4).

The material from the training school on communication and dissemination (Athens, January 2025)

The course on dissemination offered insight into communication and dissemination principles and tools best suited for EU funded projects or social media. The material is available here.

Project publications

Delve into our project publications to uncover insights, research findings, and outcomes. Explore our collection of reports, articles, and papers to stay updated on our latest endeavors and achievements.

Bugbook: Genetics of insects for food and feed publishes in Journal of Insects as food and feed

Financing Rules & Guidelines

Below, you will find essential guidelines on who is eligible for reimbursement and how to claim your expenses after attending a COST event. To ensure a smooth reimbursement process, participants must meet certain conditions and follow the steps outlined below.

Eligibility Criteria & Claim Process

To be eligible for reimbursement, participants must:

Have an e-COST profile with correctly entered bank details.
Receive an official e-COST invitation confirming eligibility for reimbursement.
Accept the invitation within 2 weeks of receiving it.
Sign the attendance list on each day of the event.
Submit a reimbursement claim within 15 calendar days after the meeting ends.
Upload all required supporting documents in clear and legible condition.

By following these steps, you ensure that your claim is processed efficiently. Below, you will find more details on eligible and non-eligible expenses.

Meeting and workshop reports

Find valuable material among our meeting reports that include debates, brainstorming, and opening a new horizon of ideas for insect breeding.

Insect-IMP EAAP conference in Athens in January 2025

European federation of animal science (EAAP) organised the first ever insect genetics workshop in Athens in January 2025. The scientific programme was put together by the members of Insect-IMP COST Action and followed the topics of the six working groups. Find the presentations below.

PLENARY

01 – Pablo Librado – Ancient DNA, museomics and insect domestication
02 – Yaakov Baruch – How genomics revolutionized crop and animal genetic breeding
03 – Clint Rhode – Population and functional genomics of black soldier fly mass rearing
04 – Grum Gebreyesus – Innovative phenotyping systems to advance selective breeding in black soldier fly

SESSION 1: Genetic diversity, population structure and in breeding management

01 – Hector Rosche-Flores – A preliminary draft pangenome of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens): structural and genetic insights from diverse populations
02- Ben Gradus – Diverse genomic signatures of Hermetia illucens: tools for comprehensive analysis of diversity
03 – Peter Kimani Muchina – Building a reference imputation panel and optimizing imputation strategies for low-pass sequencing
04 – Markus Neuditschko – If one is not enough – Using whole-genome sequencing data from pooled workers to explore the admixture pattern of honey bee populations
05 – Christoph Sandrock – The bug and the bridgehead: global colonisation patterns of the black soldier fly inferred from metapopulation genetic structure
06 – Mert Kükrer – Geography and climate shape genetic diversity in black soldier fly populations across native and introduced ranges
07 – Ana Samardžić – AI and molecular taxonomy: a comprehensive approach to aquatic macroinvertebrate identification and genetic diversity in the Balkans
08 – Luca Fontanesi – Population genomics from a food matrix: estimating csd variability using next generation sequencing on Apis mellifera DNA present in honey
09 – Lucas Rocha Ferreira – Evidences of recent genome domestication in Tenebrio molitor using population and quantitative genomics
10 – Christos Athanassiou – Exploring the fitness traits of cross-breeding in Tenebrio molitor: Insights from laboratory and largescale trials
11 – Roel Meyermans – Can we use crossbreeding in black soldier fly to improve production?
12 – Momir Futo – Genomic phylostratigraphy reveals a wealth of Hermetia illucens species-specific genes of unknown function

SESSION 2: Interplay of genetics, environment and community

01 – Nir Bonda – Using artificial selection tools to increase neonates’ survival rate in black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) after suspension
02 – Kriti Shrestha – Correlated response to selection for increased body weight on fecundity in Hermetia illucens
03 – Inbar Nevo-Yassaf – A novel PCR-based method for early sex identification in black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae
04 – Leonard Opare – High larval density and exposure to entomopathogenic fungi adversely affect key life history traits and lead to increased immune investment in the black soldier fly
06 – Antonios Tsagkarakis – Silkworms as an alternative insect protein source: nutritional value and environmental sustainability
07 – Georgia Baliota – Comparative larval growth of Alphitobius diaperinus populations on various substrates
08 – Christina Adamaki-Sotiraki – Do strains affect insect farming efficiency? The effect of Tenebrio molitor strains on adult fecundity and larval growth
09 – Christoph Sandrock – Pervasive plasticity: Genotype-by-environment interactions for larval performance and body composition traits in the black soldier fly
10 – Irene de Carlos – Modeling the impact of non-native honey bee importation on native Apis mellifera mellifera populations
11 – Valeria Taurisano – How genetic integrity in honey bees, addressed in a regional law, can be monitored using mitochondrial DNA
12 – Joana Oliveira – A glow in the waste: advancing food safety with transgenic fluorescent black soldier fly larvae
13 – Ana Maria Silva Campos – Optimizing COI barcoding for molecular detection of hidden insect infestations in rice grains: evaluating primer efficiency and detection limits

SESSION 3: Mating behavior and mating control

01 – Sreten Andonov – How many samples are sufficient for testing the reliability of mating stations in honey bees (A. mellifera)?
02 – Jana Obsteter – Optimizing pedigree reconstruction and patriline determination in honeybees
03 – Armel Donkpegan – Mating behaviour checking in the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens L.) using SNP data: parentage assignment for pedigree reconstruction
04 – Olga Ameixa – Mating behaviour and mating control (in farmed insects), what can we learn from biological control?
05 – Rebecca Boulton – Can cryptic sex enhance the performance of an asexual aphid parasitoid?
06 – Panagiota Soulioti – Unlocking the potential of Zophobas morio: nutritional and reproductive insights
07 – Andrea Resconi – Is age just a number? Investigating the effects of male and female age on the reproduction of Tenebrio molitor L.
08 – Yuliia Riabtseva – Impact of adult body size on reproductive performance in Hermetia illucens (Diptera:Stratiomyidae)

SESSION 4: Components of Breeding Program Design in Farmed Insects

01 – Ana Samardžić – Characterization of gut microbiota in chironomus riparius under natural and laboratory conditions
02 – Wael Yakti – Dietary protein source and level influence the free amino acid composition of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL)
03 – Istvan Fodor – High-throughput phenotyping of black soldier flies – A survey of challenges and needs in the industry
04 – Gertje Petersen – Automated recording approaches reveal novel raits in the honeybee (Apis Mellifera)
05 – Arnon Tabic – A case study of selective breeding in the biological control industry – Improving mass rearing of a predatory mite, phenotyping, selecting and identifying molecular markers
06 – Susanne Knoll – The adaptive design of breeding objectives of black soldiers flies (Hermetia illucens): an example from one of the earliest European farms and processors
08 – Musa Abdulraheem Arome – Framework and design of the FBN breeding program for enhanced efficiency in black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens)
09 – Laura Skrubbeltrang Hansen – Strong potential for selection for larger larval size in the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens)

Working group meeting in Celle, May 2024

Insect-IMP organised its first working group meeting in Celle in May of 2024. The meeting included working group 4 (breeding objectives), 5 (phenotyping), and 6 (breeding value estimation). You can find the presentations and the report below.

WG4

The main objective of the WG4 workshop was to create a common network of breeding objectives (NEBO) based on the expertise of all participants. The output was a report, a NEBO diagram (see below).

WG5

WG5 workshop focused on an overview of all the phenotypes collected in the different insect species, and the different standard
operating procedures to measure certain traits. The workshop included the following presentations:

WG6

WG6 workshop focused on specificities and common points when estimating breeding values in insects. The output includes a report and the following presentations:

- Laura Hansen: House fly breeding values estimation
- Andreas Hoppe: Honeybee specificities in Breeding values estimation
- Sreten Andonov: BLUP in honeybee
- Richard Bernstein: The new concept – Genomic selection in honeybees