Cryopreservation of Insect Tissues and Developmental Stages: Sustainability and Future Perspectives for Biological Control

Abstract

Cryopreservation is an advanced biological preservation technique that enables the long-term storage of living organisms or biological materials at ultra-low temperatures while maintaining their structural integrity and viability. In the field of entomology, this technique has gained increasing importance for the preservation of insects at different developmental stages, including eggs, embryos, larvae, and reproductive tissues. The sustainable conservation of insects, which constitute a major component of global biodiversity, has become an essential requirement from the perspectives of both agricultural pest management and biodiversity conservation.

Due to the increasing drawbacks associated with chemical control, which remains the most widely used method in pest management, biological control based on the use of natural enemies has emerged as one of the most important alternative strategies. The application of cryopreservation techniques in insects offers significant advantages for biological control programs by enabling the availability of biological control agents in the desired quantity and at the required time. Furthermore, cryopreservation represents a multidimensional technology in entomology, with a broad range of applications including the year-round propagation of insect species that are difficult to mass rear, the standardization of mass-production systems, and the long-term preservation of insect genetic resources. Future advances in cryoprotectant optimization and cryogenic protocols are expected to further expand the applicability of this technology across diverse insect taxa.