Scale Insect Records from Ornamental Plants Help to Prioritize Plant Health Resource Development

Abstract

Estimates about which scale insect species are most frequently encountered in U.S. landscapes and commercial production systems are largely anecdotal. This survey of records maintained across about 15 years within the National Plant Diagnostic Network (NPDN) National Data Repository (NDR) returned information from 10,671 records of 192 scale insect species and 23 suspected species that were associated with ornamental plants. This broad species diversity challenges our ability to effectively train diagnosticians, can confound species identification accuracy, and impedes outreach efforts and resource development. To help focus future efforts in the development of outreach resources and diagnostic training guides, lists were assembled that identified the 60 top-ranked soft, armored, mealybug, and other scale insect taxa most frequently diagnosed within NDR records. Diagnostic service records from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee provided more extensive information regarding sites or client types from which submitted samples originated. Results are being used to develop web-based, image-rich guides to key scale insect taxa in the southeastern United States that will explain life cycles, behaviors, and biology for pest species. These web-based guides can be exploited to optimize pest management actions.

A Rapid Integration Method of Wild Ornamental Plant Resources Based on Improved Clustering Algorithm

“…Approximately 29% of the country's wild plant populations are under jeopardy, and natural resources of a range of therapeutic materials are rare, with just a tiny number of commodities accessible or none at all. In order to provide a theoretical basis for the future management and protection of wild plant resources in Zhouzhi Nature Reserve, providing suggestions and ideas for the rational planning and utilization of plant resources [4] is suggested [5,6]. China has a vast territory and abundant resources of wild ornamental plants.…”

“…Flower production is widely acknowledged as a successful agribusiness branch, despite the fact that floriculture crops are not classified among the primary agricultural commodities. Low labour costs, as well as ecologically and occupationally unsustainable practices, have all contributed to this rise in Kenya, Ethiopia, Colombia, Brazil, and ailand [6]. e fast increase of flower production in emerging nations is aided by seasonal and meteorological benefits [7].…”