Impact of global warming scenarios on life-history traits of Tetranychus evansi (Acari: Tetranychidae)

Noureldin Abuelfadl Ghazy,Tetsuo Gotoh,Takeshi Suzuki

doi:10.1186/s12898-019-0264-6

Abstract

BackgroundThe tomato red spider mite, Tetranychus evansi Baker & Pritchard (Acari: Tetranychidae), is an agricultural pest of solanaceous crops. Although T. evansi is of South American subtropical origin, it has recently expanded its distribution range to many tropical and temperate areas around the world. Its potential distribution range in response to scenarios of global warming was recently modeled, confirming its current and possible future distributions. Here, we experimentally investigated the biological traits of T. evansi in the context of the current and future global warming (2100) scenarios. Using an environmental simulation system, we tested the life-history traits of T. evansi under current summer temperatures (as of June, July, and August 2016) and under expected temperature increases based on two IPCC scenarios: RCP2.6 (+ 1 °C) and RCP8.5 (+ 3.7 °C). The mites were introduced into each scenario on 1 June and their sequential progeny were used for testing in each following month.ResultsThe mite could develop and reproduce under all scenarios. There was a decrease in the duration of lifespan and female fecundity at RCP8.5 during June and August, but this may be compensated for by the high intrinsic rate of increase, which implies faster population growth and shorter generation time.ConclusionOur study and other reports reveal the high adaptability of T. evansi to a wide range of summer temperatures; this may explain its current distribution. We anticipate that global warming will favor the spread of T. evansi and may further expand its distribution to a large area of the globe. These findings should be of ecological and practical relevance for designing prevention and control strategies.

Highlights

The tomato red spider mite, Tetranychus evansi Baker & Pritchard (Acari: Tetranychidae), is an agricultural pest of solanaceous crops
T. evansi emerged as an invasive pest distributed in the tropical and temperate areas of nearly 43 countries; it is associated with 136 host plants of 36 plant families [16,17,18,19]
We experimentally examined the life-history traits of T. evansi under three temperature scenarios: the current temperature, plus two global warming scenarios according to the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) [5], namely the mean values for “a stringent mitigation scenario” (RCP2.6) and “high greenhouse gas emissions” (RCP8.5) in 2100

Summary

Introduction

The tomato red spider mite, Tetranychus evansi Baker & Pritchard (Acari: Tetranychidae), is an agricultural pest of solanaceous crops. The tomato red spider mite, Tetranychus evansi Baker & Pritchard (Acari: Tetranychidae), was reported for the first time in Brazil by Silva [10]. Tetranychus evansi does not enter diapause and is able to produce throughout the year if environmental conditions are favorable [13, 14] Characteristics such as a higher intrinsic rate of increase ( at high temperatures: the thermal optimum is ~ 35 °C) than other Tetranychus species, absence of effective biological control agents, resistance to pesticides, and the ability to manipulate plant defenses account for the high invasive potential of T. evansi [15, 20, 22,23,24,25,26]

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