Background
In some localities of the Mediterranean coast and the Nile land region, the gall midge Schizomyia buboniae Frauenfeld, 1859 (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) induce small barrel-shaped galls on the stem of Deverra tortuosa (Desf.) DC. (Family: Apiaceae). Host plants interact with several insects in a different manner. The current work studies the interaction of S. buboniae with D. tortuosa. Furthermore, the present work predicted the distribution of S. buboniae and its host plant D. tortuosa in Egypt by using MaxEnt modeling, in addition to the effect of elevation and vegetation cover on its distribution.
Results
The predominance of S. buboniae occurred during late winter to spring. The S. buboniae larvae are occasionally attacked by endoparasitoids of the genus Inostemma (Platygastridae). There was a significant positive correlation between the number of galls per plant and the plant cover within the study localities. Meanwhile, there was no significant correlation between the number of galls per plant and the altitude within the study localities. Also, the high temperature and altitude were the most important predictors for the habitat distribution of S. buboniae and its host plant D. tortuosa. The predicted distribution range size for S. buboniae is less than the total predicted distribution range size for D. tortuosa.
Conclusions
The current study suggests that the gall inducer prefers large plants more than small ones. The present study suggests that the habitat distribution patterns of S. buboniae and its host plant D. tortuosa in Egypt can be modeled using a small number of occurrence records together with environmental variable layers for the study area through the maximum entropy modeling technique.
Galls and their inducing insects represent one of the most challenges that facing entomologists because of their unique life history and the highly characteristic gall structure. Gall-inducing insects and their distributions in Egypt of little studies which depend on few researchers from countries of Europe during their scientific journeys. Asphondylia punica (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) is associated with one of the most important medicinal plants, the Atriplex halimus (Chenopodiaceae). A. punica induces fusiform swellings galls on the stem of A. halimus with multiple chambers. The interaction between the gall inducer Asphondylia punica and its host plant A. halimus were studied. The results indicated that there was a significant correlation between the number of galls per plant and the plant cover but there was no correlation between the number of galls per plant and altitude. The predicted distributions of Asphondylia punica in Egypt were done by using MaxEnt technique. The results showed that the prediction distribution of Asphondylia punica and its host plant Atriplex halimus is concentrated in Mediterranean coastal regions.
In some regions of the Deltaic Mediterranean coastal land of Egypt, Baldratia salicorniae Kieffer, 1897 (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) is a gall-forming insect that induces fleshy galls on the stem of Salicornia fruticosa (L.) L. (Family: Amaranthaceae). the current study tried to investigate the interaction of B. salicorniae with its host plant S. fruticosa in some regions of the Mediterranean coast and study the effect of altitude and vegetation cover on galls induction. In addition, to estimate the predicted geographic distribution habitats of B. salicorniae and its host plant S. fruticosa in Egypt by using MaxEnt technique.
Zika, dengue fever, and chikungunya are arboviral infections that are spread by Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae). Climate change is one of the most important factors associated with the medically important insect pests such as mosquitoes (Culicidae). Diseases spread by mosquitoes are growing because of changes in global temperature; they will spread to new regions. The objective of the current study was to study potential geographic distribution habitats of Ae. aegypti in the world under both current and future climate conditions. The scenarios that used were BCC-CSM2-MR and IPSL-CM6A-LR with two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) for each of the GCMs: SSP126 and SSP585. The results revealed that Altitude, Temperature Seasonality (standard deviation *100) (bio4) and Annual Precipitation (bio12) were the most important environmental variables that affected the distribution of Ae. aegypti.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.