THE DISTRIBUTION OF, RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN, AND FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ABUNDANCE OF BEMISIA TABACI AND THE INCIDENCE OF TOMATO YELLOW LEAF CURL VIRUS IN SOUTHERN FLORIDA TOMATO By JAMES EDWIN TAYLOR A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2011 1 © 2011 James E. Taylor 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank my parents and my sister who provided support and guidance throughout my life and my scholastic career. I give a special thanks to my beautiful wife, Kate, who I am blessed to have as my best friend and personal editor. More importantly she was always there with support and encouragement throughout the research and writing process. I thank my major professor, Dr. David Schuster for all the guidance and life lessons I’ve learned as a student under his mentorship. He was always there to provide a helpful hand and allowed me the freedom to explore. I thank my committee members Dr. Sabine Grunwald, Dr. Jane Polston and Dr. Susan Webb for their continued support and direction they have given me throughout my research. I would like to extend a huge thanks to the scouting team because without their eagerness to ride around tomato fields and the patience to look for a little white insect this project would have never been completed. This includes Don MacIntyre, Harvey Wade, Tad Connine, Bill MacIssac, Lloyd Stetler, Jim Watson, Lynne Bullerman, Deborah Kiser and Jim Blackstone. Thanks to the Vegetable Entomology Laboratory at the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center and the entire GCREC for their support. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 3 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 6 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 8 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 10 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 12 Overview ................................................................................................................. 12 Purpose of the Study .............................................................................................. 14 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................................................... 16 Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) .................................................................................... 16 Taxonomy ......................................................................................................... 16 Biology.............................................................................................................. 17 History .............................................................................................................. 18 Hosts ................................................................................................................ 19 Management .................................................................................................... 23 Cultural control ........................................................................................... 24 Chemical control ........................................................................................ 26 Biological control ........................................................................................ 29 Spatial Distribution ........................................................................................... 31 Migration and Dispersal .................................................................................... 32 Tomato yellow leaf curl virus ................................................................................... 36 Biology and Distribution .................................................................................... 36 Hosts ................................................................................................................ 37 TYLCV - Plant Relationship .............................................................................. 39 TYLCV - B. tabaci Relationship ........................................................................ 39 Management .................................................................................................... 43 Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Statistics.......................................... 47 GIS ................................................................................................................... 47 Geostatistics ..................................................................................................... 49 GIS Uses in Entomology .................................................................................. 52 GIS Uses in Plant Disease Management ......................................................... 57 Spatial Analysis by Distance IndicEs (SADIE) .................................................. 59 Classification and Regression Tree Analysis .................................................... 62 3 SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF BEMISIA TABACI AND TYLCV IN TOMATO ............................................................................................................ 65 Purpose .................................................................................................................. 65 4 Methods and Materials............................................................................................ 67 Study Sites ....................................................................................................... 67 Data Analyses .................................................................................................. 68 Results .................................................................................................................... 70 Fall 2007 ........................................................................................................... 70 Spring 2008 ...................................................................................................... 71 Fall 2008 ........................................................................................................... 71 Spring 2009 ...................................................................................................... 71 IDW Interpolation .............................................................................................. 72 SADIE Analysis ................................................................................................ 72 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 73 4 RELATIONSHIP OF ABUNDANCE OF BEMISIA TABACI TO INCIDENCE OF TYLCV IN THE FIELD AND ITS IMPLICATIONS TO MANAGEMENT AND EPIDEMIOLOGY .................................................................................................. 104 Purpose ................................................................................................................ 104 Methods and Materials.......................................................................................... 105 Study Sites ..................................................................................................... 105 Data Analyses ................................................................................................ 106 Results .................................................................................................................. 109 Fall 2007 ......................................................................................................... 109 Spring 2008 .................................................................................................... 110 Fall 2008 ......................................................................................................... 110 Spring 2009 .................................................................................................... 111 IDW Interpolation ............................................................................................ 111 Discussion ............................................................................................................ 111 5 FACTORS INFLUENCING ABUNDANCE AND SEVERITY OF BEMISIA TABACI AND TYLCV IN TOMATO ....................................................................... 140 Purpose ................................................................................................................ 140 Methods and Materials.......................................................................................... 142 Study Sites ..................................................................................................... 142 Explanatory Variables .................................................................................... 143 CART Analysis ............................................................................................... 144 Results .................................................................................................................. 145 B. tabaci ......................................................................................................... 145 TYLCV ...........................................................................................................