Abstract
A detailed knowledge on the spatial distribution of pests is crucial for predicting population outbreaks or developing control strategies and sustainable management plans. The diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella, is one of the most destructive pests of cruciferous crops worldwide. Despite the abundant research on the species’s ecology, little is known about the spatio-temporal pattern of P. xylostella in an agricultural landscape. Therefore, in this study, the spatial distribution of P. xylostella was characterized to assess the effect of landscape elements in a fine-scale agricultural landscape by geostatistical analysis. The P. xylostella adults captured by pheromone-baited traps showed a seasonal pattern of population fluctuation from October 2015 to September 2017, with a marked peak in spring, suggesting that mild temperatures, 15–25 °C, are favorable for P. xylostella. Geostatistics (GS) correlograms fitted with spherical and Gaussian models showed an aggregated distribution in 21 of the 47 cases interpolation contour maps. This result highlighted that spatial distribution of P. xylostella was not limited to the Brassica vegetable field, but presence was the highest there. Nevertheless, population aggregations also showed a seasonal variation associated with the growing stage of host plants. GS model analysis showed higher abundances in cruciferous fields than in any other patches of the landscape, indicating a strong host plant dependency. We demonstrate that Brassica vegetables distribution and growth stage, have dominant impacts on the spatial distribution of P. xylostella in a fine-scale landscape. This work clarified the spatio-temporal dynamic and distribution patterns of P. xylostella in an agricultural landscape, and the distribution model developed by geostatistical analysis can provide a scientific basis for precise targeting and localized control of P. xylostella.
Highlights
The diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella (L.), is one of the most destructive economic pests of cruciferous vegetables throughout the world
Many aspects of the population dynamics of P. xylostella have recently been documented, with most of these studies analyzing the temporal patterns of adult capture d ata[8,9,10,11,12,13]
Plutella xylostella population were significantly associated with the average daily minimum temperature (P = 0.002, r = − 0.450) and average daily maximum temperature (P = 0.011, r = − 0.370)
Summary
The diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella (L.), is one of the most destructive economic pests of cruciferous vegetables throughout the world. Many aspects of the population dynamics of P. xylostella have recently been documented, with most of these studies analyzing the temporal patterns of adult capture d ata[8,9,10,11,12,13]. There are few investigations that analyzed the spatio-temporal pattern of P. xylostella populations at the level of agricultural landscape, and little information is available about the moth’s distribution in habitats outside of cruciferous vegetable fields. In this study we used geostatistical methods to investigate the temporal dynamics and spatial distribution of the diamondback moth, P. xylostella, in a fine-scale agricultural landscape located in a coastal region near the Taiwan Strait, Southeast of China
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