Population prediction of whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) in changing environments of Egypt
Alvin M. Simmons1*, Shaaban Abd-Rabou2, Ahmed A. Farag3, Buddhi Pantha4 & Naveen K. Vaidya5
ABSTRACT
Climate change is expected to have an impact on pest management in different agroecosystems. Pest management strategies in these agroecosystems may need to be adjusted in responses to long term changes in pest populations. The whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is an important pest on a global scale because of its voracious feeding and its role in transmission of numerous plant viruses in many agroecosystems. A field study was conducted to help elucidate the impact of climate change on populations of whiteflies in vegetable agroecosystems in Egypt. Mild winter temperatures allow whiteflies to live year-round in these agroecosystems. Predictions of populations of B. tabaci were done for agroecosystems in three Egyptian governorates (Dakahlia, Damietta, and Sohag). The Sohag site was in the Nile Valley (about 520 km south of Cairo). The other two sites (Dakahlia and Damietta) were in the Nile River Delta (about 110 km and 155 km north of Cairo, respectively). Historical seasonal patterns as well as long-term values (for the years 2041 and 2070) of populations of whiteflies were estimated. The results based on our analysis of the temperature and whitefly population patterns spanning an excess of three decades (from 1980 to 2013) support that the temperature continued to rise, and the whitefly population continued to increase among years in each agroecosystem. Results from this research will help agricultural stakeholders in understanding the impact of changing environments on populations of whiteflies.
Keywords: Bemisia tabaci, pest population, population model, vegetable, climate change, sweetpotato whitefly, Egypt.
Affiliations
1U.S. Vegetable Laboratory, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Charleston, SC, USA.
2Ministry of Agriculture, ARC, Plant Protection Research Institute, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.
3Ministry of Agriculture, ARC, Central Laboratory for Agriculture Climate, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.
4Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton, GA, USA.
5Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Computational Science Research Center, and Viral Information Institute, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA.
Infos article
African Journal of Tropical Entomology Research: 1 (2) pp. 72-82.
© 2022 Simmons et al.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE/ OPEN ACCESS
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Received: 24 June 2022
Accepted: 13 July 2022
Published : 06 August 2022
Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Citation : Simmons, A. M., Abd-Rabou, S., Farag, A. A., Pantha, B., & Vaidya, N. K. (2022). Population prediction of whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci) in changing environments of Egypt. African Journal of Tropical Entomology Research, 1(2), 72–82.