Emergence of New Potential Insect Pests of Date Palm: Could Climate Change Be the Reason?

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 242-245
Author(s):  
Hamadttu A. F. El-Shafie

Four insect species were reported as new potential pests of date palm in recent years. They are sorghum chafer (Pachnoda interrupta), the rose chafer (Potosia opaca), the sericine chafer beetle (Maladera insanablis), and the South American palm borer (Pysandisia archon). The first three species belong to the order Coleoptera and the family Scarabaeidae, while the fourth species is a lepidopteran of the family Castniidae. The injury as well as the economic damage caused by the four species on date palm need to be quantified. Due to climate change and anthropogenic activities, the date palm pest complex is expected to change in the future. To the author's knowledge, this article provides the first report of sorghum chafer as a pest damaging date palm fruit.

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 985
Author(s):  
Sandra Skendžić ◽  
Monika Zovko ◽  
Ivana Pajač Živković ◽  
Vinko Lešić ◽  
Darija Lemić

Climate change and invasive species are major environmental issues facing the world today. They represent the major threats for various types of ecosystems worldwide, mainly managed ecosystems such as agriculture. This study aims to examine the link between climate change and the biological invasion of insect pest species. Increased international trade systems and human mobility have led to increasing introduction rates of invasive insects while climate change could decrease barriers for their establishment and distribution. To mitigate environmental and economic damage it is important to understand the biotic and abiotic factors affecting the process of invasion (transport, introduction, establishment, and dispersal) in terms of climate change. We highlight the major biotic factors affecting the biological invasion process: diet breadth, phenological plasticity, and lifecycle strategies. Finally, we present alien insect pest invasion management that includes prevention, eradication, and assessment of the biological invasion in the form of modelling prediction tools.


EDIS ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2005 (14) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan E. Webb

Celery and parsley (and carrots, treated in another chapter) are related crops in the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae). Both fall in EPA Crop Group 4, Leafy vegetables. To a large degree they share insect pests and are thus treated together here. Most of the information presented refers only to celery, but pest biology and management options can, in most cases, be applied to parsley. Other related leafy vegetables, for which we do not have specific pesticide tables, include Florence fennel (finochio), and chervil. Key insect pests are described in this document with additional management options. Pesticides registered for use on celery and parsley are listed in two separate tables at the end of this document. Many other insects may occasionally attack these crops but seldom cause economic damage. This document is ENY-463, one of a series of the Department of Entomology and Nematology, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date July 2002. Revised August 2005. ENY-463/IG149: Insect Management for Celery and Parsley (ufl.edu)


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Somala Karthik ◽  
M.S. Sai Reddy ◽  
Gummudala Yashaswini

The most dynamic and global environmental issue to date is climate change. The consequences of greenhouse effect and climate change from rising temperatures, frequent droughts, irregular rainfall, etc. are already evident. Insects and plants are affected by climate change and extreme weather events and the direct impact of anthropogenic climate change has been reported on every continent, in every ocean and in most major taxonomic groups. In the modern period, as a result of natural cycles and anthropogenic activities and their effects on the global climate, plants are typically susceptible to new environmental factors, i.e. higher levels solar radiation, rise in temperatures, greenhouse effect and changes in rainfall patterns over the seasons. Increased temperatures, CO2 and rapid changes in rainfall patterns can dramatically alter the biochemistry of plants and thus plant defence responses. This can have important implications in insect fertility, feeding rates, survival, population size, and dispersal. The relationships between plants and insects are thus changed with significant consequences for food security and natural ecosystems. Similarly, mismatches between plants and insect pollinators are caused by the acceleration of plant phenology by warming. Human nutrition which depends on insect pollination can be affected with reduction in plant reproduction and fitness. Thus, understanding abiotic stress reactions in plants and insects is relevant and challenging in agriculture. In the preparation and implementation of effective strategies for future insect pest management programmes, the impact of climate change on crop production, mediated by changes in the populations of extreme insect pests should be carefully considered.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdoul Amir Rahnama ◽  
Esmaeil Rahkhodaei

Date palm is unisexual, being either male or female. Male and female flowers grow on buds called Spathe, which opens naturally when fully mature. It is easy to identify the male and female flowers. Under the method of manual pollination, pollen from a male flower is smeared over female flowers. The pollen variety and pollination time have important effects on date palm fruit set, yield and quality. This experiment was carried out to study the effect of date pollinizer variety and pollination time on fruit set, growth and development of Medjhol date palm variety, in date palm garden of date palm and tropical fruit research institute of Iran during three years from 2009 to 2011. The trail was randomized complete block design in factorial manner with three pollen variety as Ghaname, Vardy, and Samesmave, two pollination time as 1-3 days before or after spathe opening and four replication. The results showed that the Vardy pollen had significant effects and increased the fertility percent and fruit yield, rather than two other pollen varieties. The pollen variety had no significant effects on fruit quality as total sugar, acidity, and bricx. The pollination time before spathe opening significantly increased fertility percent, decreased fruit weight and date palm yield. Finally the pollen variety and pollination time interaction effects showed that, application of Vardy pollen from 1-3 days after spathe opening with the most production date palm yield, equal 19.9 kilogram per any date palm trees, so this treatment is the best and are recommended.


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (Special) ◽  
pp. 143-155
Author(s):  
SD Mohapatra ◽  
R Tripathi ◽  
Anjani Kumar ◽  
Suchismita Kar ◽  
Minati Mohapatra ◽  
...  

The insect problem is accentuated in intensive rice cropping where the insects occur throughout the year in overlapping generations. Over 800 insect species damaging rice in one way or another, although the majority of them do very little damage. In India, about a dozen of insect species are of major importance but the economic damage caused by these species varies greatly from field to field and from year to year. Insect pests cause about 10-15 per cent yield losses. Farmers lose an estimated average of 37% of their rice crop to insect pests and diseases every year. This review focuses on precision farming tools being used in rice pest and diseases management viz., forecasting model for real-time pest-advisory services, hyper-spectral remote sensing in pest damage assessment, computer-based decision support system, disruptive technologies (mobile apps).


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 1270-1277
Author(s):  
Hiba F. Al-Sayyed ◽  
Hamed R. Takruri ◽  
Nawal A. Bakir ◽  
Dima H. Takruri

Background : Female menstrual changes in hormone concentration influence appetite and eating behavior. As well, eating pattern has some influences on menstrual hormonal status. Feeding date palm fruit has been found in our previous report to affect menstrual hormones and some menstrual parameters. Objective: The aim of this research is to study the effect of feeding dates on energy, macronutrient, and fiber intakes, body weight, and body fat%. Additionally, this study aims to find any correlation between menstrual hormone concentration and the above-mentioned parameters. Methods: A convenient sample (n=37) of not-sexually active females aged 20-30 were divided into two groups; one group (dates group) was fed 7 dates and the other served as a control group. The participants of the control group were exposed to the same experimental conditions except for eating dates. Throughout the feeding trial, the volunteers filled a 3-day food record; one menses day and two non-menses days. Results: There was a significant effect of the menstrual status-feeding duration interaction in terms of protein and fat intakes. Additionally, menstrual status, as well as feeding duration, affected energy and macronutrient intakes significantly. Furthermore, feeding duration affected fiber intake significantly. Despite the above-mentioned differences in energy and macronutrient intakes, these effects didn’t affect the body weight and body mass index of the study participants, neither their body fat%. Moreover, we have found significant correlations between nutrient intakes and menstrual hormone concentration. Conclusion : Feeding dates affected energy, macronutrient, and fiber intakes significantly. These effects were related to the changes in menstrual hormone concentration.


Author(s):  
Sandra A. Allan

Manipulation of insect behavior can provide the foundation for effective strategies for control of insect crop pests. A detailed understanding of life cycles and the behavioral repertoires of insect pests is essential for development of this approach. A variety of strategies have been developed based on behavioral manipulation and include mass trapping, attract-and-kill, auto-dissemination, mating and host plant location disruption, and push-pull. Insight into application of these strategies for insect pests within Diptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Hemiptera/Thysanoptera are provided, but first with an overview of economic damage and traditional control approaches, and overview of relevant behavioral/ecological traits. Then examples are provided of how these different control strategies are applied for each taxonomic group. The future of these approaches in the context of altered crop development for repellency or as anti-feedants, the effects of climate change and the risks of behaviorally-based methods are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin H. Strauss ◽  
Philip M. Orton ◽  
Klaus Bittermann ◽  
Maya K. Buchanan ◽  
Daniel M. Gilford ◽  
...  

AbstractIn 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast of the United States, creating widespread coastal flooding and over $60 billion in reported economic damage. The potential influence of climate change on the storm itself has been debated, but sea level rise driven by anthropogenic climate change more clearly contributed to damages. To quantify this effect, here we simulate water levels and damage both as they occurred and as they would have occurred across a range of lower sea levels corresponding to different estimates of attributable sea level rise. We find that approximately $8.1B ($4.7B–$14.0B, 5th–95th percentiles) of Sandy’s damages are attributable to climate-mediated anthropogenic sea level rise, as is extension of the flood area to affect 71 (40–131) thousand additional people. The same general approach demonstrated here may be applied to impact assessments for other past and future coastal storms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Luo ◽  
Yiying Ding ◽  
Zhihao Peng ◽  
Kezhi Chen ◽  
Xuewen Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractHeteropoda venatoria in the family Sparassidae is highly valued in pantropical countries because the species feed on domestic insect pests. Unlike most other species of Araneomorphae, H. venatoria uses the great speed and strong chelicerae (mouthparts) with toxin glands to capture the insects instead of its web. Therefore, H. venatoria provides unique opportunities for venom evolution research. The venom of H. venatoria was explored by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization tandem time-of-flight and analyzing expressed sequence tags. The 154 sequences coding cysteine-rich peptides (CRPs) revealed 24 families based on the phylogenetic analyses of precursors and cysteine frameworks in the putative mature regions. Intriguingly, four kinds of motifs are first described in spider venom. Furthermore, combining the diverse CRPs of H. venatoria with previous spider venom peptidomics data, the structures of precursors and the patterns of cysteine frameworks were analyzed. This work revealed the dynamic evolutionary trends of venom CRPs in H. venatoria: the precursor has evolved an extended mature peptide with more cysteines, and a diminished or even vanished propeptides between the signal and mature peptides; and the CRPs evolved by multiple duplications of an ancestral ICK gene as well as recruitments of non-toxin genes.


Science ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 356 (6345) ◽  
pp. 1362-1369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solomon Hsiang ◽  
Robert Kopp ◽  
Amir Jina ◽  
James Rising ◽  
Michael Delgado ◽  
...  

Estimates of climate change damage are central to the design of climate policies. Here, we develop a flexible architecture for computing damages that integrates climate science, econometric analyses, and process models. We use this approach to construct spatially explicit, probabilistic, and empirically derived estimates of economic damage in the United States from climate change. The combined value of market and nonmarket damage across analyzed sectors—agriculture, crime, coastal storms, energy, human mortality, and labor—increases quadratically in global mean temperature, costing roughly 1.2% of gross domestic product per +1°C on average. Importantly, risk is distributed unequally across locations, generating a large transfer of value northward and westward that increases economic inequality. By the late 21st century, the poorest third of counties are projected to experience damages between 2 and 20% of county income (90% chance) under business-as-usual emissions (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5).


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