As part of the meeting, entomologists will be marking 50 years since the publication of Rachel Carson's seminal book, Silent Spring, by exploring the present and future situation for agriculture, pesticide use and insects.
New, hard-hitting evidence is expected to be presented from leading scientists, including examining critical issues around nicotine-based pesticides impacting on the colony collapse of honey bees, as well as assessing the effects of climate change.
Although pesticides such as DDT, identified by Carson in her 1962 book, are rarely used nowadays, delegates will hear from Dr Mickael Henry of the French Agricultural Research Agency INRA that tests show these new insecticides are actually very dangerous to insects with sophisticated behaviour, such as bees. The chemicals disturb their ability to find their way home and pollinators like honey bees and bumblebees are under particular threat.
The organiser of the Silent Spring session, Professor Stuart Reynolds of the University of Bath, said:
"Regulatory agencies and chemical companies did not expect this result, how they now react will be a test of their responsibility to the environment."
Professor Jeremy Thomas OBE, President of the Royal Entomological Society whose past members include Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, said:
"The Ento conference is hugely important in that it is three days where the world's leading scientists can gather and share the latest findings and evidence, from which we can ascertain the crucial and critical issues facing our earth and the human race."
Prof Thomas added:
"Insects may be small, but they're responsible for some of the biggest issues facing life on earth. How do we manage food crops and feed a population approaching 60 million and yet safeguard our dying bee population?
"One-third of our diet is reliant on pollinators such as honey bees. David Attenborough famously said if humans disappeared overnight, the rest of the world would get on okay, but if invertebrates were to disappear, the world's ecosystems would collapse. The UK needs to sit up and take notice of the research and predictions of the Ento12 event."
A memorial lecture will take place during the conference in honour of Mike Majerus, a Cambridge scientist and lecturer who was internationally known in the fields of ecological and evolutionary genetics and widely noted for his work on moths and ladybirds.
Dr Alvin Helden, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Life Sciences at Anglia Ruskin, said:
"We are very proud that we have this chance to hold such an important meeting and to showcase some of our research and the excellent facilities in the Lord Ashcroft Building, where it is to be held."