Invasive aphids of the tribe Siphini: a model of potentially suitable ecological niches

Abstract

Sipha (Rungsia) maydis, Sipha (Rungsia) elegans, Sipha (Sipha) glyceriae and especially Sipha (Sipha) flava are considered to be virus vectors and serious pests of crops and pasture grasses. Ecological niche modelling, a useful tool for assessing potential geographical distributions of species, was used to predict the risk of invasion of these four species of the Siphini (Hemiptera, Aphididae) on a global scale. The maximum entropy model based on associations between unique occurrence localities and a set of environmental variables was used. Obtained models of potentially suitable habitats, based only on climatic variables, suggest that favourable conditions for each species may be present on every continent. However, S. (S.) flava appears to be potentially the most widespread species. Moreover, the resulting maps provide important information on the corridors by which invasive species are able to penetrate into new areas. A mean of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve at the levels of 0.937, 0.947, 0.968, 0.937 for S. (R.) maydis, S. (R.) elegans, S. (S.) glyceriae and S. (S.) flava, respectively, indicated a high level of discriminatory power of the maximum entropy model. A jackknife test indicated that the precipitation of the coldest quarter with the highest gain value was the most important environmental variable restricting the expansion of the studied species.