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Seasonal abundance of Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) and diversity of its parasitoids along altitudinal gradients of the eastern Afromontane

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Abstract

Monthly field surveys of diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella (L.) and its parasitoids were conducted to assess seasonal abundance and diversity under changing altitude. Twenty-four crucifer farms spread across three altitudinal zones of Mount Kilimanjaro and Taita hills were sampled for the insects at monthly interval from 2013 to 2014. Diamondback moth abundance differed significantly between seasons (F3, 21 = 3.883, p = 0.024) in the high zone of Taita hills. The abundance among altitudinal zones of the two transects was not significantly different (Mt. Kilimanjaro: F2, 98 = 0.415, p = 0.661; Taita hills: F2, 116 = 0.303, p = 0.739). Eight parasitoid species emerged in the laboratory from collected DBM larvae and pupae. Cotesia vestalis (Haliday) provided the most DBM parasitism in the low zone and Diadegma semiclausum (Hellen) in the medium and high zones. Parasitism by D. semiclausum increased by 32.5% between the low and medium zones (p = 0.001) of Taita hills. Diversity of parasitoid species declined considerably from the low to medium zones of Taita hills. The diversity of wild crucifer species increased with altitude but was twice as diverse in the high zone of Mt. Kilimanjaro than the high zone of Taita hills. Ecological complexity of the cropping system contributed greatly to a wider parasitoid diversity along Mt. Kilimanjaro. The introduced C. vestalis has successfully established in East Africa and adapted to the warmer areas in the low altitudes.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) for providing research facilities for conducting the experiments. We appreciate the unwavering support of Mr. Barnabas Makutakuta at TPRI and Ms. Janet Ambale at ICIPE for assistance with data collection in the laboratory. We are thankful of Mr. Charles Kanyi for driving and technical support in the field. We appreciate wild crucifer identification assistance from Mr. Emmanuel Mboya and Elia John from the National Herbarium of Tanzania. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this research by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland through the Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystem Services and Food Security in the Eastern Africa (CHIESA) Project. Benignus Ngowi was supported by CHIESA and ICIPE core funding provided by United Kingdom Aid from the UK Government, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany, and the Kenyan Government. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the donors.

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  1. Division of Plant Health, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, P.O. Box 30772-00100, Nairobi, Kenya

    Benignus Valentine Ngowi, Fathiya Khamis, Brigitte Nyambo & Sevgan Subramanian

  2. School of Biological Sciences, University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197-00100, Nairobi, Kenya

    Benignus Valentine Ngowi, Evans Mungai Mwangi & Paul Nduati Ndegwa

  3. National Plant Quarantine Station, Tropical Pesticides Research Institute, P.O. Box 3024, Arusha, Tanzania

    Benignus Valentine Ngowi

  4. International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), P.O. Box 1041-00621, Nairobi, Kenya

    Henri Edouardo-Zefack Tonnang

  5. International Institute for Tropical Agriculture – Benin, 08 BP 0932 Tri Postal, Cotonou, Benin

    Henri Edouardo-Zefack Tonnang

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Ngowi, B.V., Tonnang, H.EZ., Khamis, F. et al. Seasonal abundance of Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) and diversity of its parasitoids along altitudinal gradients of the eastern Afromontane. Phytoparasitica 47, 375–391 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12600-019-00732-3

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