Scirtothrips dorsalis (Thysanoptera: Thripidae): a Newly Introduced Polyphagous Pest in Northeastern Brazil

Prioritization of absent quarantine pests in Brazil through the Analytical Hierarchy Process

Introducing an Absent Quarantine Pest (AQP) can cause severe economic, social and environmental impacts, generating food insecurity. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is an excellent tool for prioritizing APQs, allowing countries to better prepare against these threats. This study aimed to determine which AQPs should be prioritized in Brazil. For this, 20 AQPs were selected from the Brazilian official list. The selection was based on pests intercepted by Brazil between 2015 and 2018 and by countries of the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization, in the international movement of plants. It can be concluded that out of the 20 AQPs studied, 17 are the priority and that the AHP method is effective for this purpose. Other countries from different continents can use this methodology to prioritize PQAs and thus create strategic plans to prevent entry into their territories and economic, social, and environmental impacts.

Predicting the Potential Global Distribution of Scirtothrips dorsalis (Hood) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) with Emphasis on the Americas Using an Ecological Niche Model

Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) is an invasive pest that is popularly known as chilli thrips. This insect pest has a wide range of hosts distributed across 72 plant families, causing damage to numerous crops of great economic importance. In the Americas, it is present in the USA, Mexico, Suriname, Venezuela, Colombia, and some Caribbean Islands. Knowing the regions which have environmentally suitable conditions for the survival of this pest is important for phytosanitary monitoring and inspection. Thus, our objective was to forecast the distribution potential of S. dorsalis with a focus on the Americas. Models were produced to design this distribution, in which the environmental variables used were made available in Wordclim version 2.1. The algorithms used for the modeling were the generalized additive model (GAM), generalized linear model (GLM), maximum entropy (MAXENT), random forest (RF), and Bioclim, in addition to the ensemble, which consisted of the grouping of the algorithms used. The metrics used to evaluate the models were area over the curve (AUC), true ability statistics (TSS), and Sorensen score. All models had satisfactory results (> 0.8) for all metrics used. In North America, the model showed favorable regions on the west coast of the USA and east coast near New York. In South America, the potential distribution of the pest is significant, encompassing regions in all countries. It is concluded that S. dorsalis has suitable areas for the occurrence in the three American subcontinents and, in particular, a large part of South America.