Although there is a long history of remote sensing application in agriculture, only recently have there been efforts to apply this technology widely in entomological studies. Here, we highlight three scales (levels) of application of remote sensing in entomology and present an example of how this technology can be used at each scale to understand plant-pest interactions and to develop precision and area-wide pest management strategies. At the laboratory or greenhouse level, remote sensing in the form of a fiber optic spectrometer can be used to study the spectral characteristics of plants exposed to biotic and abiotic stressors. As an example, we show how the spectral radiance ratio of peanut foliage changes in relation to varying levels of soil moisture and twospotted spider mite density. At the level of an individual field, we show how an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) that carries color and near infrared remote sensing cameras can be used to obtain low-altitude, high-resolution imagery of crop fields to identify areas of stress. We discuss the use of the UAV remote sensing system for developing maps of twospotted spider mite populations in peanut fields for precision pest management. At the regional level, Landsat satellite imagery can be used to study crop systems and to develop area-wide pest management strategies. Our example in this case is the use of satellite imagery to study the dynamics of the silverleaf whitefly in the multicrop system in Imperial Valley, CA.
Species 1: Homoptera Aleyrodidae Bemisia argentifolii (sweetpotato whitefly Biotype B, silverleaf whitefly)
Species 2: Acari Tetranychidae Tetranychus urticae (twospotted spider mite)
Keywords: remote sensing, precision agriculture
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