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Assessing New Scouting Approaches for Field Sampling of Spodoptera frugiperda and Its Parasitoids
* 1, 2 , 1, 3, 4 , 1, 2 , 1
1  Biorisk Management Facility (BIMAF), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA-Benin), 08-01000 Cotonou, Benin
2  Ecole de Gestion et de Production Végétale et Semencière (EGPVS), Université Nationale d’Agriculture (UNA), 43 Kétou, Bénin
3  Faculty of Biosciences (BIOVIT), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), NO-1432 Ås, Norway
4  Division of Biotechnology and Plant Health, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), NO-1431 Ås, Norway
Academic Editor: Junwei (Jerry) Zhu

Abstract:

The efficient control of fall armyworm (FAW) Spodoptera frugiperda depends on timely and reliable detection of its egg masses and early larval stages. A range of tools exist for field scouting of FAW among which the newly developed Farmer Interface App (FIA). The current experiments were conducted under the hypothesis that scouting pattern relevance determine the significance of FAW and parasitoids oviposition data collected. Seven scouting patterns were compared during intensive sampling of FAW and two parasitoid species in maize plots. The FIA - being the simplest model among them, and the one which can be easily implemented by low-literacy farmers – gave precision levels statistically comparable to those of more complex models. The pest oviposition data, the egg parasitoid Telenomus remus and the egg-larval parasitoid Chelonus sp. were modelled in this study.

Keywords: species monitoring; sampling accuracy; scouting method; application algorithm
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