In 2011, we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of this journal, which was started in 1981 by the late Professor Thomas Risley Odhiambo. Formerly Insect Science and Its Application, the journal's name was changed to International Journal of Tropical Insect Science (IJT) in 2004, and it has been growing in reputation ever since. With a distinct focus on the tropics, 30 years is a long time for a journal, and we are pleased that IJT is part of a growing number of science journals from the South.

We are beginning this year with significant changes in the editorial board. Dr Mamoudou Sétamou of Texas A&M University in the USA is our new Regional Editor for the Americas, replacing Dr César Cardona of CIAT who is retiring from the IJT Board. Dr Sunday Ekesi from icipe is the new Regional Editor for Africa, replacing Professor Ahmed Hassanali of Kenyatta University in Kenya who moves to the Editorial Board. Two incoming Editorial Board members, Dr Juliana Jaramillo Salazar of Leibniz University of Hannover in Germany and Professor N. Krishnan of Oregon State University in the USA, join Professor Hassanali on our Board. On behalf of the entire IJT team and Editorial Board, I would like to thank Professor Hassanali and Dr Cardona for their invaluable contributions to the journal.

There was an unexpected and tragic transition at the beginning of 2011. We regret to announce that Dr Adenirin Chabi-Olaye (see separate Obituary), an IJT Editorial Board member, passed away in a road accident in his native Benin in early January 2011. Dr Chabi-Olaye will be remembered for his numerous contributions as editor and reviewer for IJT. Our journal as well as icipe, as host institution, has lost a dear colleague and friend.

This 31st volume of the journal contains a combined edition (issues 1 and 2) with 16 research papers. A supplement on fruit flies that is outside the allocated page numbers is scheduled for the latter part of 2011. We look forward to publishing these and other peer-reviewed studies.

Let us now look back on the past year. The four most downloaded articles published in 2010 included ‘Farmer field school – IPM impacts on urban and peri-urban vegetable producers in Cotonou, Benin’, ‘Identification and abundance of thrips species on soybean in Puerto Rico’, ‘Mating behaviour of the aphidophagous ladybird beetle Coelophora saucia (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)’ and ‘Evolution of host acceptability and suitability in Callosobruchus maculatus (Coleoptera: Bruchidae) developing on an occasional host: importance of pest status prediction’. Our co-publisher, Cambridge University Press, UK, kindly supplied this evaluation, which is also available on the journal's website (http://journals.cambridge.org/jti).

Christian Borgemeister,

Editor-in-Chief