Impact of Weather Factors on Coelaenomenodera elaiedis MLK (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in Nigeria

The leaf miner (Coelaenomenodera elaeidis) is a major pest of the oil palm. It breaks out in epidemic proportions periodically, resulting in severe leaf defoliation and consequently low fresh fruit bunch (FFA) yield. This study analyses temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, and leaf miner abundance records sampled in oil palm fields between 1976 and 1980 in the main station of the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR). Data for temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity were obtained from NIFOR meteorological station. Mathematical relationships between the insect stages (larva, pupa, and adult) and weather factors (rainfall and temperature) were developed indicating that pest predictions can be made for different leaf miner stages using their corresponding model equations giving specific values for rainfall and temperature. Variations in the seasonal patterns of temperature and rainfall are of major significance as a cue to timing leaf miner abundance and would help in making better decisions regarding where farmer action can target pest control interventions, thereby contributing to ensure food security. The need for continuous monitoring has great potential for detection and control of insect pests in oil palm growing areas.

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Climate Change Impacts and Forecasts of Oil Palm Leaf Miner Populations

Academic Journal of Life Sciences ◽

10.32861/ajls.71.1.13 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Aneni Thomas Idemudia ◽

Adaigbe Victor Chuks

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Relative Humidity ◽

Oil Palm ◽

Insect Pest ◽

Leaf Miner ◽

Weather Factors ◽

Climate Trend ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Increasing Trend ◽

Palm Leaf

Agricultural production is very sensitive to climate change, and it suffers from periodic outbreaks of insect pests which cause considerable losses especially in the humid and sub-humid tropics which severely constrain the productivity potential of global agriculture under changing climate conditions. The oil palm leaf miner is a major pest of the oil palm. Mathematical relationships between the leaf miner insect stages and weather factors were developed for pest predictions and forecasting. Decadal variation in air temperature was characterized by wide differences between 1961 – 1970 and 2001 – 2010. The assessment of the sensitivity of leaf miner to variability in weather and climate conditions is important in view of evidence that show expansion of pest ranges as a result of climate variability impacts. The study has established an upward increase in temperature, attributed to climate change, with a concomitant increase in leaf miner abundance between 1980 and 2010. Larvae showed an increasing trend for the observed period. When this observation was correlated with the weather (temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity) during these periods, it could be inferred that there was proliferation as a result of weather changes. This was different from the decreasing trend observed during the 1976 – 1980 period. Pupae showed a decreasing trend for the observed period. Adults showed an increasing trend for the observed period. It could be inferred that adults were proliferating due to temperature increases and rainfall decreases. An incremental increase in temperature could help explain fluctuations in insect pest populations within and between years. Thus climatic conditions greatly influenced seasonal leaf miner populations. The climate forecast up to 2050 indicates an upward trend in temperature and a downward trend in rainfall and relative humidity. This followed the climate trend between 1961 and 2010. This study contributes to the understanding of the insect pest-weather relationship in broad agricultural and food security terms. A major advantage is the potential for limiting the spread of outbreaks through timely control of early pest infestations.

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Seasonality of Non-SARS, Non-MERS Coronaviruses and the Impact of Meteorological Factors

Pathogens ◽

10.3390/pathogens10020187 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 187

Author(s):

Olympia E. Anastasiou ◽

Anika Hüsing ◽

Johannes Korth ◽

Fotis Theodoropoulos ◽

Christian Taube ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Logistic Regression ◽

Relative Humidity ◽

Cloud Cover ◽

Detection Rate ◽

Logistic Regression Model ◽

Meteorological Factors ◽

Seasonal Pattern ◽

Weather Factors ◽

Immunosuppressed Patients ◽

Immunocompetent Patients

Background: Seasonality is a characteristic of some respiratory viruses. The aim of our study was to evaluate the seasonality and the potential effects of different meteorological factors on the detection rate of the non-SARS coronavirus detection by PCR. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of 12,763 respiratory tract sample results (288 positive and 12,475 negative) for non-SARS, non-MERS coronaviruses (NL63, 229E, OC43, HKU1). The effect of seven single weather factors on the coronavirus detection rate was fitted in a logistic regression model with and without adjusting for other weather factors. Results: Coronavirus infections followed a seasonal pattern peaking from December to March and plunged from July to September. The seasonal effect was less pronounced in immunosuppressed patients compared to immunocompetent patients. Different automatic variable selection processes agreed on selecting the predictors temperature, relative humidity, cloud cover and precipitation as remaining predictors in the multivariable logistic regression model, including all weather factors, with low ambient temperature, low relative humidity, high cloud cover and high precipitation being linked to increased coronavirus detection rates. Conclusions: Coronavirus infections followed a seasonal pattern, which was more pronounced in immunocompetent patients compared to immunosuppressed patients. Several meteorological factors were associated with the coronavirus detection rate. However, when mutually adjusting for all weather factors, only temperature, relative humidity, precipitation and cloud cover contributed independently to predicting the coronavirus detection rate.

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Introgression of Resistance to Leafminer (Liriomyza cicerina Rondani) from Cicer reticulatum Ladiz. to C. arietinum L. and Relationships between Potential Biochemical Selection Criteria

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11010057 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 57

Author(s):

Nesrine Chrigui ◽

Duygu Sari ◽

Hatice Sari ◽

Tuba Eker ◽

Mehmet Fatih Cengiz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Organic Acids ◽

Succinic Acid ◽

Selection Criteria ◽

Insect Pests ◽

Recombinant Inbred Lines ◽

Selection Criterion ◽

Leaf Miner ◽

Interspecific Crosses ◽

Visual Scale ◽

Resistant Varieties

The chickpea leafminer, Liriomyza cicerina (Rondani), is one of the most destructive insect pests of cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in the Mediterranean region under field conditions. For sustainable and environmentally friendly chickpea production, efforts have been devoted to managing the leafminer via decreasing the use of insecticides. Breeding of new resistant varieties is not only an efficient and practical approach, but also cost-effective and environmentally sensitive. To improve resistant varieties, breeders need reliable biochemical selection criteria that can be used in breeding programs. The first objective was to investigate the possible introgression of resistance to the leafminer from C. reticulatum Ladiz. (resistant) to C. arietinum (susceptible), then, to estimate inheritance of resistance to the leafminer for efficient breeding strategies, and finally, to study organic acid contents as selection criteria. Recombinant inbred lines (RILs) and their parents were evaluated using a visual scale of 1–9 (1 = free from leafminer damage and 9 = mines in more than 91% of the leaflets and defoliation greater than 31%) in the field under natural infestation conditions after the susceptible parent and check had scores of >7 on the visual scale. Superior RILs were found for resistance to the leafminer, and agro-morphological traits indicating that introgression of resistance to leaf miner from C. reticulatum to C. arietinum could be possible using interspecific crosses. The inheritance pattern of resistance to the leafminer in RILs was shown to be quantitative. Organic acids, including oxalic, malic, quinic, tartaric, citric and succinic acids in RILs grown in the field under insect epidemic conditions and in the greenhouse under non-infested conditions were detected by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In general, organic acids were found to be higher in resistant RILs than susceptible RILs. Path and correlation coefficients showed that succinic acid exhibited the highest direct effects on resistance to the leafminer. Multivariate analyses, including path, correlation and factor analyses suggested that a high level of succinic acid could be used as a potential biochemical selection criterion for resistance to leafminer in chickpea. Resistant RILs with a high seed yield resembling kabuli chickpea can be grown directly in the target environments under leaf miner infestation conditions.

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Distribution map of oil palm fresh fruit bunch using LiDAR*

2021 12th International Conference on Information and Communication Systems (ICICS) ◽

10.1109/icics52457.2021.9464575 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Husna Sarirah Husin ◽

Nurnasuha Amar ◽

Aznida Abu Bakar Sajak ◽

Mohd Sallehin Mohd Kassim

Keyword(s):

Oil Palm ◽

Fresh Fruit ◽

Distribution Map ◽

Fresh Fruit Bunch

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Development and reproduction of Podisus distinctus (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) fed on larva of Bombyx mori (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae)

Brazilian Journal of Biology ◽

10.1590/s1519-69842004000200008 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 64 (2) ◽

pp. 237-242 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

M. C. Lacerda ◽

A. M. R. M. Ferreira ◽

T. V. Zanuncio ◽

J. C. Zanuncio ◽

A. S. Bernardino ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Biological Control ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Relative Humidity ◽

Bombyx Mori ◽

Insect Pests ◽

Males And Females ◽

Heteroptera Pentatomidae ◽

Bombyx Mori L ◽

Chemical Products ◽

Coleoptera Tenebrionidae

Biological control has been reducing the use of chemical products against insect pests, specially predatory Pentatomidae. Species of this group can present high variations in their life cycle as a result of their diet. Thus, the objective of this research was to study nymph development and reproduction of Podisus distinctus (Stäl, 1860) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) fed on Bombyx mori L., 1758 (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae) larvae (T1), compared to those fed on Tenebrio molitor L., 1758 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) (T2) and Musca domestica L., 1758 (Diptera: Muscidae) larvae (T3) at a temperature of 25 ± 0.5ºC, relative humidity of 70 ± 2%, and photophase of 12 h. Predators fed on B. mori showed duration of the nymph phase (18.68 ± 1.02) similar to those fed on T. molitor (18.32 ± 1.49). Pre-oviposition and oviposition periods and number of egg masses, besides eggs and nymphs per female, were higher with B. mori (5.83 ± 2.02; 15.00 ± 7.40; 8.42 ± 1.84; 296.69 ± 154.75; and 228.55 ± 141.04, respectively) while longevity of males and females of P. distinctus was 25.76 ± 16.15 and 35.00 ± 16.15 days with T. molitor, and 20.57 ± 13.60 and 23.46 ± 12.35 days with B. mori, respectively.

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Seasonal Incidence of Pulse Aphid (Aphis craccivora Koch.) and its Natural Enemies on Field Pea (Pisum sativum L.) in Relation to Some Abiotic Factors in Alluvial Zone of West Bengal

Legume Research - An International Journal ◽

10.18805/lr-4464 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

S. Pal ◽

S. Samanta ◽

A. Banerjee

Keyword(s):

Relative Humidity ◽

Pisum Sativum ◽

Natural Enemies ◽

West Bengal ◽

Insect Pests ◽

Field Pea ◽

Pest Population ◽

Pisum Sativum L ◽

Aphis Craccivora Koch ◽

Weather Parameters

Background: Field pea, Pisum sativum L. is an important winter-season pulse crop. It is subjected to damage by both field and storage insect pests and approximately 10-15 per cent reduction in yield was reported due to the infestation of different insect pests. Among these, pulse aphid (Aphis craccivora Koch.) affects plant physiology directly by removal of nutrients or indirectly by dispersal of various viral diseases. The present investigation has been aimed to study the seasonal fluctuations of aphids and their natural enemies as well as their correlation. Another objective was to know the effect of various weather parameters on pulse aphids and their natural enemies which ultimately would be helpful to develop a forewarning model.Methods: The field experiment was conducted at the A-B Block Farm of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal using two varieties of field pea (KPMR 935 and IFPD 122) during rabi seasons of two consecutive years of 2017-18 and 2018-19 following a Randomized Block Design with three replications. After recording the total population of both pests (nymphs and adults) and their natural enemies across the season, the mean population was worked out and used for correlation and regression studies along with the weather parameters. Result: Maximum aphid population was noticed during the peak pod formation stage of the crop irrespective of the varieties. The pest population was very strongly correlated with the incidence of coccinellid and ant population in both test varieties. Among the weather parameters, both maximum and minimum temperature and sunshine hour showed a positive correlation with the pest population and their natural enemies but relative humidity and rainfall showed a negative correlation. Regression studies indicated that temperature and relative humidity were the most influencing factors over the incidence of aphid in both the seasons.

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