A historic account of the invasion of Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in the continental United States, with remarks on their identification

BACKGROUND: Drosophila suzukii is an oriental species first reported outside Asia from Hawaii in 1980. The first confirmed records for the continental United States were made in 2008 in California. The identification of this pest is difficult because very few published resources exist. RESULTS: It has since been recorded in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Utah, Michigan, Wisconsin, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Males are relatively easy to identify by the black apical wing spots and the single row of combs on the first and second tarsal segment of the fore leg. The male genitalia are also very characteristic and will aid in identifying teneral specimens. Females can be identified by the large ovipositor, which is 6–7 times as long as the diameter of the spermatheca. Immature stages can only be identified by molecular techniques. CONCLUSION: Although this species has been recorded from many US states and Canadian provinces, it has not been established in all of these places, and the main economic damage is restricted to the western part of North America. With the characters laid out in this paper, it should be possible to identify the pest with high certainty. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

Validation of a geographic weighted regression analysis as a tool for area-wide integrated pest management programs for Ceratitis capitata Wiedemann (Diptera: Tephritidae) on Terceira Island,Azores

Extrapolation from quantitative sampling to the surrounding areas is an essential feature of many aspects of real world applications in pest management decision-making. However, these decisions are only as good as the accuracy of the methods that provided the information. The problem of estimating Mediterranean fruit fly population densities from trap grids is a specific case. The efficiency of three methods to estimate fruit flies trapped per day values for non-sampled areas in Terceira Island is evaluated, the inverse distance weighted, ordinary Kriging and the geographic weighted regression (GWR). Each method has its own specificities and merits. The results demonstrate that the GWR method is capable of estimating hotspots for the next season and can be used to identify ecological corridors over a non-sampled area. The high spatial heterogeneity and topographical conditions present on Terceira Island may explain why a more mathematically complex method is more reliable than simpler methods for use in possible future wide-area control program for medfly.