A computer-simulated study was conducted to investigate two questions. First we wished to see if the lower developmental temperatures of tropical insects could be estimated through the conduct of field studies. Second, we wished to determine if the use of phenology models, in a linear heat unit system, would result in more reliable predictions of tropical insect phenological events than would the use of calendar dates. The insect we chose to model was the striped stem borer, Chilo suppressalis (Walker), a pest of rice Oryza sativa L. Results from the simulations indicated that lower developmental temperatures of tropical insects can be estimated from field studies and that some phenology models were more reliable than the calendar-based methods for predicting phenological events of insects in the tropics. Implications of these findings are briefly discussed.
Species 1: Lepidoptera Pyralidae Chilo suppressalis (striped stemborer)
Keywords: lower developmental temperatures, tropical insects
Back to Display Presentations, Subsection Cf. Quantitative Ecology
Back to Posters
Back to The 2002 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition