Florian Hartig

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A temperature-based model for predicting the immigration of Cacopsylla melanoneura and C. picta, vectors of the apple proliferation disease, in South Tyrol, Northern Italy (Hemiptera: Psylloidea)

Bernd Panassiti, Nicolas Sander, Valerio Mazzoni, Stefanie Fischnaller, Martin Parth, Manuel Messner, Katrin Janik & Florian Hartig

Cicadina, 18, 1–11 (2019)
Cite this
@article{panassiti2019temperature,
  author = {Bernd Panassiti and Nicolas Sander and Valerio Mazzoni and Stefanie Fischnaller and Martin Parth and Manuel Messner and Katrin Janik and Florian Hartig},
  title = {A temperature-based model for predicting the immigration of Cacopsylla melanoneura and C. picta, vectors of the apple proliferation disease, in South Tyrol, Northern Italy (Hemiptera: Psylloidea)},
  journal = {Cicadina},
  volume = {18},
  pages = {1--11},
  year = {2019},
  doi = {10.25673/92148},
}

DOI: 10.25673/92148
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Abstract

Insects in temperate regions usually emerge in spring, based on climatic cues. Temperature-based models that predict the first flight onset of pest insects in crop fields are therefore useful tools for agriculture and crop protection. Here, we calibrate and apply such a temperature-based model for Cacopsylla melanoneura and Cacopsylla picta (Hemiptera - Psyllidae) in South Tyrol, Northern Italy. These psyllid species are the main vectors of apple proliferation, an economically important phytoplasma disease. We found that the temperature associated with the onset (first presence) of the insects in the orchards differs between vectors and between different regions. For the regions Burggrafenamt and Vinschgau, the first adults of Cacopsylla melanoneura remigrants mostly occurred in January while first Cacopsylla picta remigrants mostly occurred in the orchard between March and April. The presented temperature-based immigration model may be used as a tool to predict the first vector appearance in apple orchards in South Tyrol.

What the paper shows and why it matters

(AI-generated)

Insects in temperate regions usually emerge in spring, triggered by climatic cues. Models that link temperature to the first appearance of a pest insect in crop fields are therefore useful for crop protection. Two psyllids, Cacopsylla melanoneura and C. picta, are the main vectors (carriers) of apple proliferation, an economically important phytoplasma (bacterial) disease of apple. The problem the paper takes on is that no model predicting when these two vectors first return to orchards existed for South Tyrol, Northern Italy; it applies and calibrates a temperature-threshold model for them.

The study finds that the temperature threshold associated with the first presence of the two vectors in apple orchards differs clearly between the species and, tentatively, between the two regions analysed, Burggrafenamt and Vinschgau; thresholds were estimated separately for each species and region. In these regions, the model indicates that the first C. melanoneura remigrants (adults returning to the orchards) can appear as early as January, and the first C. picta remigrants mostly between March and April.

The paper offers the immigration model as a possible tool for predicting when the vectors first appear in apple orchards in South Tyrol, but only after further calibration with more years of survey data. It covers only two regions and these two species.