A Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Model for Aeneolamia varia (Hemiptera: Cercopidae) Populations in Sugarcane Crops
Loading...
Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Sugarcane spittlebugs are considered important pests in sugarcane crops ranging from the southeastern United
States to northern Argentina. To evaluate the effects of climate variables on adult populations of Aeneolamia
varia (Fabricius) (Hemiptera: Cercopidae), a 3-yr monitoring study was carried out in sugarcane fields at weeklong
intervals during the rainy season (May to November 2005–2007). The resulting data were analyzed using
the univariate Forest-Genetic method. The best predictive model explained 75.8% variability in physiological
damage threshold. It predicted that the main climatic factors influencing the adult population would be, in order of
importance, evaporation; evapotranspiration by 0.5; evapotranspiration, cloudiness at 2:00 p.m.; average sunshine
and relative humidity at 8:00 a.m. The optimization of the predictive model established that the lower and upper
limits of the climatic variables produced a threshold in the population development rate of 184 to 267 adult insects
under the agroecological conditions of the study area. These results provide a new perspective on decision-making
in the preventive management of A. varia adults in sugarcane crops.
Description
Keywords
Pest insect, Population management threshold, Random Forest, Genetic algorithm