Skip to main content
Elsevier

Books in Crop protection

  • Optimizing the Plant Endosphere for Stress Management

    Enhancing Sustainable Agriculture
    • 1st Edition
    • Sankalp Misra + 2 more
    • English
    Optimizing the Plant Endosphere for Stress Management: Enhancing Sustainable Agriculture presents the latest insights on how plants manage various abiotic and biotic stresses by the interaction between plants and endophytes. The book explores the molecular and physiological mechanisms underlying plant-endophyte interactions, the contribution to stress mitigation, the identification of key traits that improve plant resilience, and the potential for using these beneficial endophytes to reduce the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. By deepening our understanding of these relationships, this book can help bring about innovative strategies that contribute to sustainable agriculture and food security while also confronting environmental challenges.These complex and multifaceted interactions influence plant health, growth, and resilience. Endophytes, primarily bacteria and fungi, inhabit the internal tissues of plants without causing harm. They play vital roles in enhancing plant growth and stress tolerance through various mechanisms including nutrient acquisition, pathogen resistance, and the production of bioactive compounds. As environmental stresses such as drought, salinity, and disease become increasingly prevalent due to climate change and agricultural intensification, understanding these interactions is crucial for developing effective stress management strategies.

  • Mineral Nutrients to Mitigate Abiotic Stress in Crops

    • 1st Edition
    • Azamal Husen
    • English
    Mineral Nutrients to Mitigate Abiotic Stress in Crops examines the physiological and biochemical dynamics that govern how plants endure increasingly unpredictable growing conditions. Sections outline the fundamental principles that shape a crop’s capacity to acquire, distribute, and utilize nutrients, and then consider how these processes influence its survival and productivity when confronting drought, salinity, heat, or nutrient-induced stress. Across chapters, contributors show how nutrient availability guides defense mechanisms—from maintaining cellular stability and enzymatic function to modulating antioxidant potential, osmotic adjustment, and stress-related signaling—and how intensifying environmental pressures reorder metabolic priorities, redirect root behavior, and reallocate resources at the whole-plant level.Building on this foundation and proceeding in an intentionally structured sequence, the book integrates applied approaches, encompassing soil and fertilizer systems, nutrient biofortification, and the breeding of nutrient-efficient cultivars. By integrating established science with emerging insights, it delivers a coherent, forward-looking framework for interpreting plant resilience, and for implementing adaptive strategies that underpin effective responses in diverse cultivation contexts. The book strategically equips researchers and practitioners with what they need to navigate the increasingly complex challenges facing modern agriculture.

  • Melatonin in Horticultural Plants

    A Multifunctional Molecule for Abiotic Stress Tolerance
    • 1st Edition
    • Muhammad Ahsan Altaf + 3 more
    • English
    Melatonin in Horticultural Plants: A Multifunctional Molecule for Abiotic Stress Tolerance consolidates insights from leading experts on the morphological, physiological, and biochemical processes triggered by the application of melatonin, ultimately resulting in enhanced crop tolerance to abiotic stresses.This book provides an in-depth analysis of various abiotic stressors affecting horticultural crops, detailing how they impact plant growth and development, from seedling establishment to senescence, as well as their influence on yield and quality. It explores how melatonin regulates these responses through chemical signaling and highlights its role in coordinating signal transduction pathways at physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels, offering a comprehensive understanding of its potential in agriculture.Beyond its theoretical foundations, the volume considers how these findings can be translated into real-world strategies. This includes practical approaches such as the use of biostimulants, hormones, novel chemicals, and microorganisms to effectively harness melatonin’s benefits in horticultural production. Designed to support researchers, plant biologists, and horticulturists, it aims to foster innovation and facilitate sustainable advancements in horticultural science, contributing to the development of resilient crops capable of thriving despite changing climate conditions and disruptive anthropogenic activities.

  • Role of Antioxidants in Abiotic Stress Management

    • 1st Edition
    • Zaid Ulhassan + 2 more
    • English
    Role of Antioxidants in Abiotic Stress Management covers the antioxidant defense system in plants, providing key insights on how to generate tolerant varieties that can adapt to harsh environmental conditions without adverse impacts on crop productivity. The book covers a broad range of antioxidant responses, describing how global climate changes and the overexploitation of natural or anthropogenic resources creates abiotic stressors. The potential impacts of factors such as heavy metals/metalloids, drought/water deficit, salinity, extreme temperatures, anoxia, and high light intensity are covered, along with discussions on how to improve crop growth and development at different stages.Written by a team of international experts, this book provides an important reference on morphological, physiological, biochemical, metabolic, anatomical and molecular responses of plants under stress factors.

  • Microbial Biostimulants for Plant Growth and Abiotic Stress Amelioration

    • 1st Edition
    • Puneet Singh Chauhan + 2 more
    • English
    Microbial Biostimulants for Plant Growth and Abiotic Stress Amelioration, the latest release in the Biostimulants and Protective Biochemical Agents series, provides readers with insights into the major role of biostimulants in plant growth and development while under abiotic stress. The term biostimulants is broadly used to reference a group of diverse substances and microorganisms that stimulate life or that promote favorable plant responses. They stimulate natural processes to enhance/benefit nutrient uptake, nutrient efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stress, and crop quality.Many biostimulants improve nutrition and they do so regardless of their own nutrient contents. Further, recently microbe-based biostimulants have emerged as important plant protectors under a range of adverse conditions.

  • Biostimulants in Plant Protection and Performance

    • 1st Edition
    • Azamal Husen
    • English
    Biostimulants in Plant Protection and Performance provides the latest research on biostimulants, a diverse class of compounds that includes substances or microorganisms that are helpful in sustainable plant growth and development. These substances accelerate plant growth, yield, and chemical composition even under unfavorable conditions, and include nitrogen-containing compounds, humic materials, some specific compounds released by microbes, plants, and animals, various seaweed extracts, bio-based nanomaterials, phosphite, silicon, and more. Additionally, the book discusses new generation products and bioproducts that are being developed for sustainable plant growth and protection, including research updates in biotechnology, nanobiotechnology, and the protective role of biostimulants. As the use of new generation biostimulants can enhance plant production systems through a significant reduction of synthetic chemicals, such as pesticides and fertilizers, and even elicit plant tolerance to various climate change-related stresses, this book is a welcomed edition to many fields of study.

  • Nanotechnology for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Management in Crop Plants

    • 1st Edition
    • Ramesh Namdeo Pudake + 2 more
    • English
    Nanotechnology for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Management in Crop Plants reviews the most recent literature on the role of nanomaterials in achieving sustainability in crop production in stressful environments. The book explores the adverse conditions caused by abiotic stress to crop plants and the methods by which these conditions can be potentially overcome through developments in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, temperature stress, excessive water, heavy metal stress, and UV stress are major factors which may adversely affect the growth, development, and yield of crops.While recent research for ways of overcoming the physiological and biochemical changes brought on by these stresses has focused on genetic engineering of plants, additional research continues into alternative strategies to develop stress tolerant crops, including the use of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

  • Hormonal Cross-Talk, Plant Defense and Development

    Plant Biology, Sustainability and Climate Change
    • 1st Edition
    • Azamal Husen + 1 more
    • English
    Hormonal Cross-Talk, Plant Defense and Development: Plant Biology, Sustainability and Climate Change focuses specifically on plants and their interaction to auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, ethylene, abscisic acid, jasmonates, brassinosteroids, strigolactones, and the potential those interactions offer for improved plant health and production. Plant hormones (auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, ethylene, abscisic acid, jasmonates, brassinosteroids, salicylic acid, strigolactones etc.) regulate numerous aspects of plant growth and developmental processes. Each hormone initiates a specific molecular pathway, with each pathway integrated in a complex network of synergistic, antagonistic and additive interactions. This is a valuable reference for those seeking to understand and improve plant health using natural processes. The cross-talks of auxins - abscisic acid, auxins - brassinosteroids, brassinosteroids- abscisic acid, ethylene - abscisic acid, brassinosteroids - ethylene, cytokinins - abscisic acid, brassinosteroids - jasmonates, brassinosteroids - salicylic acid, and gibberellins - jasmonates - strigolactones have been shown to regulate a number of biological processes in plant system. The cross-talk provides robustness to the plant immune system but also drives specificity of induced defense responses against the plethora of biotic and abiotic interactions.

  • Development and Commercialization of Biopesticides

    Costs and Benefits
    • 1st Edition
    • Opender Koul
    • English
    Development and Commercialization of Biopesticides: Costs and Benefits provides a uniquely comprehensive view of the commercial production of biopesticides, from research to application, featuring case studies in various developed and developing countries of the world. The book offers guidance for future strategies to researchers, along with considerations for the industry’s economic concerns, i.e., costs and benefits compared to conventional pesticides, future perspectives for application strategies, bioavailability and environmental safety, and impacts on intellectual property issues during commercialization. Finally, the book covers why the development of this industry must be strategic, comprehensive and forward-looking in order to be an accepted, safe and sustainable. There is no doubt that biopesticides are now in large-scale use, and a variety of novel techniques have been used to improve or modify existing biopesticides, which will further accelerate their development.

  • Hazardous and Trace Materials in Soil and Plants

    Sources, Effects, and Management
    • 1st Edition
    • M. Naeem + 4 more
    • English
    Hazardous and Trace Materials in Soil and Plants: Sources, Effects and Management explores the latest advancements in reducing, avoiding and eliminating soil contaminants that challenge the health and safety of agricultural plants. With a focus on minimizing the production of those hazardous substances, controlling their distribution and ensuring safe utilization, the book explores each contributing area and provides insights toward improved, sustainable and secure production. This is an excellent reference resource on both current research and future directions from laboratory research to field applications. The combined impacts of climate change and industrialization have led to increased and diversified threats to the health of the soil in which our food crops are grown, as well as in the plants themselves. This dual-hazard scenario is increasingly recognized as a threat to not just the environment, but to global food security as agricultural soils contaminated with pollutants alter plant metabolism, thus resulting in reduced crop quality and production quantity.

  • Plant Nematode Biopesticides

    • 1st Edition
    • Anwar L. Bilgrami + 1 more
    • English
    Plant Nematode Biopesticides presents the most current knowledge on various categories of biopesticides used in the management of nematode pests of crops or those that have significant potential as biological control agents. This book presents an exploratory and investigatory compilation and explanation of the actions and potentials of predatory nematodes, microbial agents, plant and other organic products, nanobiopesticides, and predatory invertebrates as biopesticides of nematode pests of agricultural crops. It is of unique importance and value as the only currently available single-volume resource focusing on plant parasitic nematodes as the pests and biopesticides. In addition, the book addresses common reservations in using biopesticides, either alone or in integrated pest management programs, providing advanced insights on various biopesticidal agents and products. Biopesticides may be microbial (nematodes, bacteria, fungi, virus, herbs etc.), plant-incorporated protectants (PIPs), plant products (citronella oil, neem oil, capsaicin, pyrethrin etc.), synthetic biochemical molecules, pheromones, semio-chemicals, plant extracts, or nanobiopesticides.

  • Nano-enabled Agrochemicals in Agriculture

    • 1st Edition
    • Mansour Ghorbanpour + 1 more
    • English
    Nano-Enabled Agrochemicals in Agriculture presents a targeted overview of the safe implementation of nanotechnologies within agricultural and horticultural settings, with the purpose of achieving enhanced production while maintaining ecological integrity. The growing global request for agricultural crops and products requires high standards of quality and safety, which has stimulated the search for new technologies that preserve their quality and delay their decomposition. Nanotechnology may boost plant production by improving nutrient uptake/use efficiency with nanoformulations of fertilizers and agrochemicals for plant enhancement, detection and treatment of diseases, and host-parasite interactions at the molecular level using nanosensors. It also may improve plant disease diagnostics, removal of contaminants from soil and water, postharvest management of vegetables and flowers, and reclamation of salt-affected soils. Although the markets for nanoproducts and nanoformulations continue to increase, there are also growing concerns regarding the fate and behavior of nanomaterials in environmental systems. Exploring important topics related to nanotechnology and nanomaterials, the book includes the use of nanochemicals in insect pest management, as nanofungicides, nanoherbicides, micronutrient supply, and nanosensors to monitor crop and soil health conditions, from detection of agrochemicals to their slow release of agrochemicals, and their impact on related environs. This book will serve as an excellent resource for a wide range of plant scientists who have concerns about nanomaterial interactions with terrestrial and aquatic plants.

  • Biopesticides

    Volume 2: Advances in Bio-inoculants
    • 1st Edition
    • Amitava Rakshit + 7 more
    • English
    Biopesticide: Volume Two, the latest release in the Advances in Bioinoculant series, provides an updated overview on the active substances utilized in current bioinsecticides, along with information on which of them can be used for integrated pest management programs in agro-ecosystems. The book presents a comprehensive look at the development of novel solutions against new targets, also introducing new technologies that enhance the efficacy of already available active substances. Finally, readers will find insights into the advanced molecular studies on insect microbial community diversity that are opening new frontiers in the development of innovative pest management strategies. This book will be valuable to those prioritizing agro biodiversity management to address optimal productizing and enhanced food security.

  • Microbiome Stimulants for Crops

    Mechanisms and Applications
    • 1st Edition
    • James F. White + 2 more
    • English
    Microbiome Stimulants for Crops: Mechanisms and Applications provides the latest developments in the real-world development and application of these crop management alternatives in a cost-effective, yield protective way. Sections address questions of research, development and application, with insights into recent legislative efforts in Europe and the United States. The book includes valuable information regarding mechanisms and the practical information needed to support the growing microbial inoculant and biostimulant industry, thus helping focus scientific research in new directions.

  • Recent Highlights in the Discovery and Optimization of Crop Protection Products

    • 1st Edition
    • Peter Maienfisch + 1 more
    • English
    Recent Highlights in the Discovery and Optimization of Crop Protection Products highlights the most prominent, recent results in the search for safe and effective new crop protection products. With a focus on the design, synthesis, optimization and/or structure-activity relationships of new chemistries targeting insect, disease, weed, nematode, vector and animal parasite control, the book also includes recent developments in crop enhancement chemistries and new approaches to crop protection products. The inclusion of information on testing tools, green chemistry approaches, and the latest discovery tools, like modeling, structure-based design, and testing tools makes this volume complete. Based on key presentations given at the 14th International IUPAC conference on Crop Protection, May 19-24, 2019 in Ghent, Belgium, this book includes the many exciting new discoveries and findings reported. It is designed to inspire additional research and advancement in the field.

  • Biocontrol Agents and Secondary Metabolites

    Applications and Immunization for Plant Growth and Protection
    • 1st Edition
    • Sudisha Jogaiah
    • English
    Biocontrol and Secondary Metabolites: Applications and Immunization for Plant Growth and Protection covers established and updated research on emerging trends in plant defense signaling in, and during, stress phases. Other topics cover growth at interface as a sustainable way of life and the context of human welfare and conservation of fungi as a group of organisms. Further, the book explores induced systemic resistance using biocontrol agents and/or secondary metabolites as a milestone for sustainable agricultural production, thus providing opportunities for the minimization or elimination of the use of fungicides.

  • Handbook of Vegetable Pests

    • 2nd Edition
    • John Capinera
    • English
    Handbook of Vegetable Pests, Second Edition, provides two types of diagnostic aids: the easy-to-use "guides to pests of vegetable crops", which guides the reader to the most likely pests of each vegetable crop based on the portion of the plant attacked and the category of pest; and the more technical dichotomous keys for identification of many of the difficult-to-identif... species. It includes over 300 common and occasional pest species, detailing the geographic distribution of vegetable pests, host plant relationships, natural enemies, damage, life history, and methods of control and damage prevention.

  • Plant Signaling Molecules

    Role and Regulation under Stressful Environments
    • 1st Edition
    • M. Iqbal R. Khan + 3 more
    • English
    Plant Signaling Molecule: Role and Regulation under Stressful Environments explores tolerance mechanisms mediated by signaling molecules in plants for achieving sustainability under changing environmental conditions. Including a wide range of potential molecules, from primary to secondary metabolites, the book presents the status and future prospects of the role and regulation of signaling molecules at physiological, biochemical, molecular and structural level under abiotic stress tolerance. This book is designed to enhance the mechanistic understanding of signaling molecules and will be an important resource for plant biologists in developing stress tolerant crops to achieve sustainability under changing environmental conditions.

  • Insect-Plant Interactions in a Crop Protection Perspective

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 81
    • English
    Insect-Plant Interactions, the latest edition in the Advances in Botanical Research series, which publishes in-depth and up-to-date reviews on a wide range of topics in the plant sciences, features several reviews by recognized experts on all aspects of plant genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, physiology, and ecology.

  • Control of Plant Virus Diseases

    Vegetatively-Propagated Crops
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 91
    • English
    The first review series in virology and published since 1953, Advances in Virus Research covers a diverse range of in-depth reviews, providing a valuable overview of the field. The series of eclectic volumes are valuable resources to virologists, microbiologists, immunologists, molecular biologists, pathologists, and plant researchers. Volume 91 features articles on control of plant virus diseases.

  • The Biology and Control of Weeds in Sugarcane

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 4
    • S.Y. Peng
    • English
    Offering much new information on the subject, this volume discusses the problems of weed control in sugarcane against the background of world-wide cultivation, with emphasis on Taiwan's intensive pattern of crop farming. After a brief botanical description of sugarcane and its cultivation in relation to weed control, the weeds themselves are studied. Chemical control of weeds, problems of crop tolerance and responses of weed species to chemicals are examined. Techniques for evaluating new herbicides, research and practices of chemical weed control in the leading industries of the world, and the application of techniques and equipment are all described in detail.The author has served the Taiwan sugar industry for more than 30 years and many of his techniques and approaches have been adopted by industries in other countries. To his own extensive experience, he has added a large amount of information published in recent years to compile this treatise which is both a contribution to the field of weed science, and a valuable practical manual for agronomists in general.

  • Fundamentals of Weed Science

    • 4th Edition
    • Robert L Zimdahl
    • English
    This book addresses herbicides and their use as an important aspect of modern weed management and strives to place them in an ecological framework. Many weed scientists believe agriculture is a continuing struggle with weeds--without good weed control, good and profitable agriculture is impossible. Each agricultural discipline sees itself as central to agriculture's success and continued progress, and weed science is no exception. While not denying the importance of weed management to successful agriculture, this book places it in a larger ecological context. The roles of culture, economics, and politics in weed management are also discussed, enabling scientists and students to understand the larger effects on society.

  • Agricultural and Industrial Applications Environmental Interactions

    An Advanced Treatise
    • 1st Edition
    • Dewayne Torgeson
    • English
    Fungicides, Volume I: Agricultural and Industrial Applications, Environmental Interactions discusses the application, use, and environmental interactions of fungicides. This book is organized into 15 chapters that cover the commercial development of fungicide and the organism's interaction with the environment. After discussing the history of fungicides, the book presents data on world fungicide usage and how this usage is influenced by epidemiology. It then describes procedures and approaches for commercial fungicide development; practical tests and laboratory techniques for agricultural fungicide toxicity; and significance of fungicide formulation that is determined by a variety of factors, including cost and biological efficiency. The following chapters discuss technological evolution, both in chemical fungicides and in the machinery for their application for soil and seed treatment. The application of foliar and postharvest fungicides and the use of other fungicides as industrial and wood preservatives is also tackled. The last four chapters are concerned with the various interactions between fungicides and the environment which may cause them to be more or less effective. The book will be useful to researchers, advanced students, and professional workers in the fungicide field of study who are concerned with the synthesis and development of better fungicides or their mode of action.

  • Diseases of Sugarcane

    Major Diseases
    • 1st Edition
    • C. Ricaud + 3 more
    • English
    An extensive volume of Sugarcane Diseases and their World Distribution (Vol. I) was published by Elsevier under the auspices of the International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists in 1961. The present volume was intended to be a new edition of the book, but so many changes were required that a new book was needed. Only three chapters have been kept with slight amendments. The other chapters have been completely re-written. In fact with changes in importance of major diseases, four diseases previously treated have been left out; on the other hand, three new topics have been included in the new book, two new diseases and a chapter on sugarcane quarantine.The first chapter gives a brief account of the anatomy, morphology and physiology of the sugarcane plant to facilitate terminology and especially for a better appreciation of the effect of disease on the growth of the crop. Diseases are extensively treated as in Volume I, with a very good description of their symptoms and variation under different conditions and severity, all well illustrated by black and white figures and in a set of colour plates at the end of the book which will prove of valuable help for identification. The causal agents of the diseases are described giving synonyms, cultural characteristics, isolation methods and present knowledge on race variation, an aspect on which there has been quite an advance in knowledge since Volume I was published. New techniques of diagnosis are also given. Advances in research on the diseases over the last 25 years are well covered and supported by an extensive bibliography at the end of each chapter.The book has been edited by people having first hand experience in the field and in research on these diseases. Authors have been selected from among the most knowledgeable all over the sugar cane world, especially with due regard to the importance of the different diseases in their countries.The book should prove of immense value to those concerned with practical aspects of plant disease control in the field: pathologists, agronomists and crop specialists, including consultants, to those concerned with quarantine of the crop, for university lectures and students, and research scientists.In a pre-publication review D.J. Heinz and S.A. Ferreira of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association stated: ``Much has changed and new information generated since the original version of this book was published in 1961. This new edition incorporates most of it, providing both the laboratory and field sugarcane pathologist a complete and authoritative guide to the major sugarcane diseases of the world. It is the best single book available on sugarcane diseases.''

  • Crop Production and Crop Protection

    Estimated Losses in Major Food and Cash Crops
    • 1st Edition
    • E.-C. Oerke + 3 more
    • English
    The objective of this book is to provide information to be used as a basis for evaluating the fragile, shaky structure of global food production. The volume analyses the data by region and by intensity of cultivation; and furnishes information about the yield response, giving some indication of the health of the plants. It will be invaluable to all plant and crop scientists as well as to agriculturalists.

  • Controlled Atmosphere and Fumigation in Grain Storages

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 5
    • B.E. Ripp
    • English
    The symposium was organised by Co-operative Bulk Handling Limited and the Australian Grain Institute Incorporated in collaboration with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations. The meeting attracted 270 participants from 28 countries, and as it was devoted to the practical aspects of the subject, it included a field trip to sites in various stages of the sealing exercise in order to provide coverage of the broad aspects of grain handling, storage, transport and quality control. These proceedings contain the 49 papers presented, together with a description of the field visits, plus records and discussions.

  • The Triazine Herbicides

    • 1st Edition
    • Homer M. LeBaron + 2 more
    • English
    Over the past 50 years, triazines have made a great impact on agriculture and world hunger by assisting in the development of new farming methods, providing greater farming and land use capabilities, and increasing crop yields. Triazines are registered in over 80 countries and save billions of dollars a year. The Triazine Herbicides is the one book that presents a comprehensive view of the total science and agriculture of these chemicals. With emphasis on how the chemicals are studied and developed, reviewed, and used at the agricultural level this book provides valuable insight into the benefits of triazine herbicides for sustainable agriculture.

  • Windbreaks

    • 1st Edition
    • Steven Burke
    • English
    Windbreaks is essential reading for anyone interested in improving sustainable agricultural productivity and the rural environment.Steven Burke is a leading expert in the field of windbreaks. He is employed by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Victoria, as Pest Programs Manager.

  • Pesticide Chemistry and Bioscience

    The Food-Environment Challenge
    • 1st Edition
    • G. T. Brooks + 1 more
    • English
    This volume, with contributions from leading international experts, reports on the need to produce high quality food whilst satisfying environmental concerns. Including material on natural products, modes of action and metabolism, it covers all the key areas in pesticide chemistry and related activities. The contents outline the developments that have taken place in approaches to crop protection and our ability to develop complex, environmentally acceptable strategies for weed, pest and disease control.

  • Weeds

    An Illustrated Botanical Guide to the Weeds of Australia
    • 1st Edition
    • Elizabeth Mead
    • English

  • Aphids

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 2C
    • Bozzano G Luisa
    • English

  • Spider Mites

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 1B
    • Bozzano G Luisa
    • English
    This two-part volume with contributions from more than 50 international specialists, provides an up-to-date text and brings together facts and views of acarologists specialized in various aspects of the biology of spider mites. The need for such a treatment of scientific progress and recommended topics for future research exists among students, commencing in the study of acarology and plant protection, as well as among those engaged in acarological research and teaching. Both books will serve to provide a synthesis of much of the knowledge on basic and applied aspects of the biology of spider mites and their natural enemies; stimulate students to analyse critically the views propounded by the authors of the book, and instigate research into environmentally safe and cost effective means of pest control.