1853 © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. A Special Collection: Drones to Improve Insect Pest Management Nathan Moses-Gonzales 1,3, and Michael J. Brewer 2, 1 M3 Consulting Group, LLC., Dayton, OH, USA, 2 Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Department of Entomology, Corpus Christi, TX 78406, USA, and 3 Corresponding author, e-mail: nmosesgo@m3cg.us Subject Editor: Cesar Rodriguez-Saona Received 19 March 2021; Editorial decision 8 April 2021 Abstract The Special Collection Drones to Improve Insect Pest Management presents research and development of unmanned (or uncrewed) aircraft system (UAS, or drone) technology to improve insect pest management. The articles bridge from more foundational studies (i.e., evaluating and refining abilities of drones to detect pest concerns or deliver pest management materials) to application-oriented case studies (i.e., evaluating opportunities and challenges of drone use in pest management systems). The collection is composed of a combination of articles presenting information first-time published, and a selection of articles previously pub- lished in Journal of Economic Entomology (JEE). Articles in the Collection, as well as selected citations of art- icles in other publications, reflect the increase in entomology research using drones that has been stimulated by advancement in drone structural and software engineering such as autonomous flight guidance; in- and post-flight data storage and processing; and companion advances in spatial data management and analyses including machine learning and data visualization. The Collection is also intended to stimulate discussion on the role of JEE as a publication venue for future articles on drones as well as other cybernectic-physical sys- tems, big data analyses, and deep learning processes. While these technologies have their genesis in fields arguably afar from the discipline of entomology, we propose that interdisciplinary collaboration is the pathway for applications research and technology transfer leading to an acceleration of research and development of these technologies to improve pest management. Key words: unmanned aerial system, spectral imaging technology, actuation drones, insect pest management The Special Collection Drones to Improve Insect Pest Management presents research and development of unmanned (or uncrewed) aircraft system (UAS, or drone) technology to improve insect pest management, from detection and delineation of pest injury and pest habitat to delivery of organisms and materials to mitigate pest concerns. The articles bridge from more foundational studies (i.e., evaluating and refning abilities of drones to detect pest concerns or deliver pest management materials) to application-oriented case studies (i.e., operational opportunities and challenges of drone use in pest management systems). The collection is composed of a com- bination of articles presenting information frst-time published, and a selection of articles previously published in Journal of Economic Entomology (JEE), including a review by Filho et al. (2019 of this Collection) that stimulated the idea of this Special Collection. Articles in the Collection, as well as selected citation of articles in other publications, refect the increase in entomology research using drones that has been stimulated by advancement in drone structural and software engineering such as autonomous fight guidance; in- and post-fight data storage and processing; and companion advances in spatial data management and analyses including machine learning and data visualization (e.g., Aasen et al. 2018, Høye et al. 2021).The Collection is also intended to stimulate discussion on the role of JEE as a publication venue for future articles on drones as well as other cybernectic-physical systems, big data analyses, and deep learning processes that can be leveraged to support improvements to ento- mology and the subdiscipline of insect pest management. Comments about this Special Collection and about the future role of JEE in providing a publication venue in this arena may be sent to pubs@ entsoc.org, note Drones to Improve Insect Pest Management in the subject line. Topics of the Collection Entomology, as a discipline, synthesizes information from a diver- sity of sources. Within the sub-discipline of insect pest management, access to drones and supporting technologies present entomologists with the opportunity to accomplish more with less. Bridging to pest management, UAS may be deployed to effciently and effectively Journal of Economic Entomology, 114(5), 2021, 1853–1856 doi: 10.1093/jee/toab081 Advance Access Publication Date: 28 June 2021 Editorial Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jee/article/114/5/1853/6306526 by guest on 27 November 2023