Insects: The Disregarded Domestication Histories

Abstract

Domestication has irrevocably impacted human evolution. The domestication process/ pathways have been the focus of abundant research for plants and vertebrates. Advances in genetics and archeology have allowed tremendous progresses in the understanding of domestication for these organisms. In contrast, insects' domestication has comparatively received far less attention to date. Yet, insects are the most common animal group on Earth and provide many valuable ecosystem services to humans. Therefore, the aims of this chapter are (i) to provide an overview of main ancient and recent insect domestication histories and (ii) to reread them by the light of the domestication process, pathways, triggers, and consequences observed in other animal species. Some of the considered species (i.e., silkworm and honey bee) have been chosen because they are among the few insects commonly acknowledged as domesticated, while others allow illustrating alternative domestication patterns. The overview of current literature shows similar humandirected pathway and domestication syndrome (e.g., increased tameness, decreased aggressiveness, modified reproduction) between several insect species.

When behavioural geographic differentiation matters: inter-populational comparison of aggressiveness and group structure in the European perch

“…Increasing the agriculture sustainability, including aquaculture, relies partly on the production and domestication of new species (Gepts et al 2012). Domestication is considered as the process in which populations are bred in man-controlled environment and modified across successive generations from their wild ancestors in ways making them more useful to humans who control, increasingly during the process, their reproduction and food supply (Lecocq, 2018). However, domestication remains a difficult, long, and expensive process ridden by unfruitful outcomes, mostly due to zootechnical issues or taxon intrinsic features (Liao and Huang 2000;Diamond 2002;Teletchea and Fontaine 2014).…”

Comparison of single- and multi-trait approaches to identify best wild candidates for aquaculture shows that the simple way fails

“…Finally, the volume of the yolk sac was also evaluated at 1 day post-hatching since it reflects the quantity of nutritional reserves available before exogenous feeding 49 . It is calculated using the following formula: π/6 × YSL×YSH 2 , where YSL is the length of the yolk sac and YSH the height of the yolk sac 57 .…”

“…It was enabled by wild species domestication 1 . Domestication is the process in which groups of individuals are bred in a human-controlled environment and modified across succeeding generations from their wild ancestors, in ways these become more useful to humans who increasingly control their food supply and reproduction 2 . This process ranges from the first trials of acclimatisation to the setting up of selective breeding programmes 3 .…”

Unlocking the intraspecific aquaculture potential from the wild biodiversity to facilitate aquaculture development

“…One of the biggest challenges in aquaculture diversification is the required domestication of wild taxa (Liao & Huang 2000; Harache 2002; Fontaine et al 2009). Domestication is the process in which some populations are bred in a human‐controlled environment and modified across successive generations from their wild ancestors in ways making them more useful to humans who control increasingly during the process their reproduction and food supply (Lecocq 2019). This is a stepwise process (i.e.…”