Advances in insect biomonitoring for agriculture and forestry: A synthesis on a multifaceted special issue of Agricultural and Forest Entomology

Abstract Advancing biomonitoring of insects is vital if we are to safeguard insect biodiversity whilst optimizing the ecosystem service provision necessary for production systems such as agriculture and forestry. Over recent years, many key technological, methodological and conceptual advances have been made in and adjacent to biomonitoring. These advances are set to form the biomonitoring toolbox of the 21st century. The Agricultural and Forest Entomology special issue “Advances in insect biomonitoring for agriculture and forestry” exemplifies several of these advances across ten articles. From artificial intelligence‐based image analysis and identification, through molecular methods for highly resolved monitoring, to innovative use of existing methods, the articles highlight the diverse future of biomonitoring and the multi‐modal nature of its data. Through the advances represented in this special issue, progress towards highly resolved and scalable biomonitoring is certain, with fully automated biomonitoring seeming increasingly possible. These examples do, however, largely still depend on traditional monitoring and identification of insects for validation or reference data collection. To advance biomonitoring effectively, traditional approaches therefore must remain a key component of monitoring schemes and should be integrated with emerging technologies for robust and accurate biomonitoring.