The role of climate on the mortality, occurrence, and potential distribution of Ascia monuste orseis (Lepidoptera: Pieridae)

• Ano de defesa: 2020
• Autor(a) principal: Santos, Abraão Almeida
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Viçosa; Fitotecnia
• Palavras-chave em Português: História natural; Ecologia - Modelos matemáticos; Insetos; América Latina; Fitotecnia
• Link de acesso: https://locus.ufv.br//handle/123456789/29775

In this thesis, we presented evidence on the role of climate in the natural history of the neotropical butterfly Ascia monuste orseis Godart (Lepidoptera: Pieridae). In the first chapter, we found that species occurrence increases during wet and warm conditions on agricultural crops since cold and dry conditions impair immature stages development (i.e., egg, larva, and pupa). In the second chapter, we investigated how variations on weather can affect the causes of natural mortality on immature stages. Our results indicated that variations on weather affect the mortality caused by failure, predations, and rainfall. Failure rates increased during cold and dry conditions, while under intense precipitation, rainfall caused mortality on eggs and larvae. Conversely, predation was higher during wet-warm seasons. However, we emphasized that these results were dependent on whether varied during immature development. Since A. monuste orseis is a pest of tropical brassica crops, in the last chapter, we investigated how the current climate and future scenarios can affect its potential distribution. Our models indicated that tropical areas seem to be suitable for species occurrence. However, under future scenarios, these areas tended to reduce, mostly to a host (cabbage) than the species. This thesis contributed to the knowledge about the natural history of A. monuste orseis and can be a guide to biosecurity protocols regarding the risk of pest introduction. Keywords: Biosecurity. Tropical ecology. Neotropical entomology. Natural history. Ecological modelling.