# Topics and Trends in Most Cited Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior Papers, Class of 2026

*Canonical URL: https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/insect-and-arachnid-ecology-and-behavior/2026*

## What topics and trends defined most-cited Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior research in the Class of 2026?

The 2026 ranking reveals a field pivoting toward high-resolution neuroscience and targeted ecological interventions. While broad pollinator studies declined, mapping the Drosophila connectome and investigating specific climate change impacts and pest management strategies saw significant growth.

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Field | Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior |
| Cohort label | Class of 2026 (2024 publications) |
| Papers analyzed | 7,201 |
| Papers ranked | 20 |
| Top topics in ranked papers | Connectome, Honey bee, Drosophila, Apis mellifera, Neonicotinoids |
| Publication window | Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 |
| Eligibility | Research articles; reviews excluded |
| Citation window | 18 months post-publication |
| 18m citation range | 32–120 |
| Data source | OpenAlex · Retrieved July 2026 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |

## Rankings

| Rank | Title | Authors | Corresponding authors | Affiliation | Journal | 18m citations | DOI |
| ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| 1 | Neurotransmitter classification from electron microscopy images at synaptic sites in Drosophila melanogaster | Nils Eckstein, Alexander Shakeel Bates, Andrew Champion, Michelle Du, Yijie Yin, Philipp Schlegel, Alicia Kun-Yang Lu, Thomson Rymer, Samantha Finley-May, Tyler Paterson, Ruchi Parekh, Sven Dorkenwald, Arie Matsliah, Szi-Chieh Yu, Claire McKellar, Amy Sterling, Katharina Eichler, Marta Costa, Sebastian Seung, Mala Murthy, Volker Hartenstein, Gregory S X E Jefferis, Jan Funke | Gregory S.X.E. Jefferis, Jan Funke | HHMI Janelia Research Campus, United States | Cell | 120 | 10.1016/j.cell.2024.03.016 |
| 2 | The global atlas of edible insects: analysis of diversity and commonality contributing to food systems and sustainability | Evanson R Omuse, Henri E Z Tonnang, Abdullahi Ahmed Yusuf, Honest Machekano, James Peter Egonyu, Emily Kimathi, Samira Faris Mohamed, Menale Kassie, Sevgan Subramanian, Juliet Onditi, Serah Mwangi, Sunday Ekesi, Saliou Niassy | Saliou Niassy | International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Kenya | Scientific Reports | 80 | 10.1038/s41598-024-55603-7 |
| 3 | Connectomic reconstruction of a female Drosophila ventral nerve cord | Anthony Azevedo, Ellen Lesser, Jasper S Phelps, Brandon Mark, Leila Elabbady, Sumiya Kuroda, Anne Sustar, Anthony Moussa, Avinash Khandelwal, Chris J Dallmann, Sweta Agrawal, Su-Yee J Lee, Brandon Pratt, Andrew Cook, Kyobi Skutt-Kakaria, Stephan Gerhard, Ran Lu, Nico Kemnitz, Kisuk Lee, Akhilesh Halageri, Manuel Castro, Dodam Ih, Jay Gager, Marwan Tammam, Sven Dorkenwald, Forrest Collman, Casey Schneider-Mizell, Derrick Brittain, Chris S Jordan, Michael Dickinson, Alexandra Pacureanu, H Sebastian Seung, Thomas Macrina, Wei-Chung Allen Lee, John C Tuthill | Wei-Chung Allen Lee | University of Washington, United States | Nature | 76 | 10.1038/s41586-024-07389-x |
| 4 | A Drosophila computational brain model reveals sensorimotor processing | Philip K Shiu, Gabriella R Sterne, Nico Spiller, Romain Franconville, Andrea Sandoval, Joie Zhou, Neha Simha, Chan Hyuk Kang, Seongbong Yu, Jinseop S Kim, Sven Dorkenwald, Arie Matsliah, Philipp Schlegel, Szi-Chieh Yu, Claire E McKellar, Amy Sterling, Marta Costa, Katharina Eichler, Alexander Shakeel Bates, Nils Eckstein, Jan Funke, Gregory S X E Jefferis, Mala Murthy, Salil S Bidaye, Stefanie Hampel, Andrew M Seeds, Kristin Scott | Philip K. Shiu | University of California, Berkeley, United States | Nature | 63 | 10.1038/s41586-024-07763-9 |
| 5 | Life-history stage determines the diet of ectoparasitic mites on their honey bee hosts | Bin Han, Jiangli Wu, Qiaohong Wei, Fengying Liu, Lihong Cui, Olav Rueppell, Shufa Xu | Olav Rueppell, Shufa Xu | Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China | Nature Communications | 47 | 10.1038/s41467-024-44915-x |
| 6 | Genomic data provide insights into the classification of extant termites | Simon Hellemans, Mauricio M Rocha, Menglin Wang, Johanna Romero Arias, Duur K Aanen, Anne-Geneviève Bagnères, Aleš Buček, Tiago F Carrijo, Thomas Chouvenc, Carolina Cuezzo, Joice P Constantini, Reginaldo Constantino, Franck Dedeine, Jean Deligne, Paul Eggleton, Theodore A Evans, Robert Hanus, Mark C Harrison, Myriam Harry, Guy Josens, Corentin Jouault, Chicknayakanahalli M Kalleshwaraswamy, Esra Kaymak, Judith Korb, Chow-Yang Lee, Frédéric Legendre, Hou-Feng Li, Nathan Lo, Tomer Lu, Kenji Matsuura, Kiyoto Maekawa, Dino P McMahon, Nobuaki Mizumoto, Danilo E Oliveira, Michael Poulsen, David Sillam-Dussès, Nan-Yao Su, Gaku Tokuda, Edward L Vargo, Jessica L Ware, Jan Šobotník, Rudolf H Scheffrahn, Eliana Cancello, Yves Roisin, Michael S Engel, Thomas Bourguignon | Simon Hellemans, Thomas Bourguignon | Okinawa Institute of Science & Technology Graduate University, Japan | Nature Communications | 43 | 10.1038/s41467-024-51028-y |
| 7 | Bumblebees socially learn behaviour too complex to innovate alone | Alice D Bridges, Amanda Royka, Tara Wilson, Charlotte Lockwood, Jasmin Richter, Mikko Juusola, Lars Chittka | Alice Bridges, Lars Chıttka | Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom | Nature | 41 | 10.1038/s41586-024-07126-4 |
| 8 | miR-276 and miR-182013-5p modulate insect metamorphosis and reproduction via dually regulating juvenile hormone acid methyltransferase | Jiasheng Song, Wanwan Li, Lulu Gao, Qiang Yan, Xinyan Zhang, Mingzhi Liu, Shutang Zhou | Shutang Zhou | Henan University, China | Communications Biology | 41 | 10.1038/s42003-024-07285-0 |
| 9 | Thermal infrared directs host-seeking behaviour in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes | Avinash Chandel, Nicolas A DeBeaubien, Anindya Ganguly, Geoff T Meyerhof, Andreas A Krumholz, Jiangqu Liu, Vincent L Salgado, Craig Montell | Craig Montell | University of California, Santa Barbara, United States | Nature | 40 | 10.1038/s41586-024-07848-5 |
| 10 | Pollen nutrition structures bee and plant community interactions | Anthony D Vaudo, Lee A Dyer, Anne S Leonard | Anthony D. Vaudo | University of Nevada, United States | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 39 | 10.1073/pnas.2317228120 |
| 11 | Impact of pesticide use on wild bee distributions across the United States | Laura Melissa Guzman, Elizabeth Elle, Lora A. Morandin, Neil S. Cobb, Paige Chesshire, Lindsie M. McCabe, Alice C. Hughes, Michael C. Orr, Leithen K. M’Gonigle | Laura Melissa Guzman | Simon Fraser University, Canada | Nature Sustainability | 39 | 10.1038/s41893-024-01413-8 |
| 12 | Impact of pesticides on non-target invertebrates in agricultural ecosystems | Osama Elhamalawy, Ahmed Bakr, Fawzy Eissa | Fawzy Eissa | Al-Azhar University, Egypt | Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology | 37 | 10.1016/j.pestbp.2024.105974 |
| 13 | Unveiling lignocellulolytic potential: a genomic exploration of bacterial lineages within the termite gut | João Felipe M Salgado, Vincent Hervé, Manuel A G Vera, Gaku Tokuda, Andreas Brune | Andreas Brune | Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Germany | Microbiome | 37 | 10.1186/s40168-024-01917-7 |
| 14 | Diverting organic waste from landfills via insect biomanufacturing using engineered black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens) | Kate Tepper, Owain Edwards, Anwar Sunna, Ian T Paulsen, Maciej Maselko | Maciej Maselko | Macquarie University, Australia | Communications Biology | 36 | 10.1038/s42003-024-06516-8 |
| 15 | Wild insects and honey bees are equally important to crop yields in a global analysis | James R. Reilly, Ígnasi Bartomeus, Dylan T. Simpson, Alfonso Allen‐Perkins, Lucas A. Garibaldi, Rachael Winfree | James R. Reilly | Rutgers University, United States | Global Ecology and Biogeography | 35 | 10.1111/geb.13843 |
| 16 | Disruption of an ant-plant mutualism shapes interactions between lions and their primary prey | Douglas N Kamaru, Todd M Palmer, Corinna Riginos, Adam T Ford, Jayne Belnap, Robert M Chira, John M Githaiga, Benard C Gituku, Brandon R Hays, Cyrus M Kavwele, Alfred K Kibungei, Clayton T Lamb, Nelly J Maiyo, Patrick D Milligan, Samuel Mutisya, Caroline C Ng'weno, Michael Ogutu, Alejandro G Pietrek, Brendon T Wildt, Jacob R Goheen | Jacob R. Goheen | University of Wyoming, United States | Science | 34 | 10.1126/science.adg1464 |
| 17 | A modular circuit coordinates the diversification of courtship strategies | Rory T Coleman, Ianessa Morantte, Gabriel T Koreman, Megan L Cheng, Yun Ding, Vanessa Ruta | Vanessa Ruta | The Rockefeller University, United States | Nature | 34 | 10.1038/s41586-024-08028-1 |
| 18 | The coevolution of fungus-ant agriculture | Ted R Schultz, Jeffrey Sosa-Calvo, Matthew P Kweskin, Michael W Lloyd, Bryn Dentinger, Pepijn W Kooij, Else C Vellinga, Stephen A Rehner, Andre Rodrigues, Quimi V Montoya, Hermógenes Fernández-Marín, Ana Ješovnik, Tuula Niskanen, Kare Liimatainen, Caio A Leal-Dutra, Scott E Solomon, Nicole M Gerardo, Cameron R Currie, Mauricio Bacci, Heraldo L Vasconcelos, Christian Rabeling, Brant C Faircloth, Vinson P Doyle | Ted R. Schultz | National Museum of Natural History, United States | Science | 33 | 10.1126/science.adn7179 |
| 19 | Insecticides, more than herbicides, land use, and climate, are associated with declines in butterfly species richness and abundance in the American Midwest | Braeden Van Deynze, Scott M Swinton, David A Hennessy, Nick M Haddad, Leslie Ries | Braeden Van Deynze | Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, United States | PLoS ONE | 33 | 10.1371/journal.pone.0304319 |
| 20 | Honey bee stressor networks are complex and dependent on crop and region | Sarah K French, Mateus Pepinelli, Ida M Conflitti, Aidan Jamieson, Heather Higo, Julia Common, Elizabeth M Walsh, Miriam Bixby, M Marta Guarna, Stephen F Pernal, Shelley E Hoover, Robert W Currie, Pierre Giovenazzo, Ernesto Guzman-Novoa, Daniel Borges, Leonard J Foster, Amro Zayed | Amro Zayed | York University, Canada | Current Biology | 32 | 10.1016/j.cub.2024.03.039 |

## Topic trends

### What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

The Class of 2026 for Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior is heavily defined by high-resolution neurobiology and critical agricultural challenges. The 'Connectome' emerges as a leading topic, appearing in 12% of the top papers as massive structural mappings of the Drosophila brain approach completion. Studies involving 'Honey bee' and 'Apis mellifera' remain central, though their relative frequency suggests a broadening of focus toward 'Neonicotinoids' and 'Integrated Pest Management', each capturing 8% of the top literature. Advanced 'Species distribution modeling' and tracking of 'Varroa destructor' underscore a strong focus on ecological mapping and pathogen management in changing environments.

*Leading research themes*

### How Did Topics Shift from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026?

Between the Class of 2025 and 2026, the field experienced a notable shift from broad pollinator ecology toward targeted neurobiology and specific environmental stressors. 'Connectome' and 'descending neurons' saw remarkable two- to three-fold increases in frequency, reflecting the maturation of insect brain-mapping initiatives. Similarly, interest surged in 'climate change impacts on pollinators' and 'gene silencing', highlighting a pivot toward mechanistic stress responses and novel intervention strategies. Conversely, general terms like 'Honey bee', 'Bumble bee', and 'Wild bee' experienced sharp declines, dropping by up to 50% as research questions became more granular and focused on specific pathways or localized ecological modeling.

*How topics shifted year over year*

## Cite this ranking

```
Pepkio Research Index (PRI). Topics and Trends in Most Cited Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior Papers, Class of 2026. https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/insect-and-arachnid-ecology-and-behavior/2026. Accessed 2026-07-21.

Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459
```