Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera:Noctuidae): biogeographical origin, distribution and spread
2019
Lit, I.L., Jr
The Fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), had not been reported to occur in the Philippines based on pest records for the last 100 years or so. Recently, however, it is being monitored as it threatens to invade the Philippines, having been reported quite recently in Taiwan and in other neighboring Asian countries, most notably Indonesia (Sumatra) and Thailand. FAW is known to have originated from and is widely distributed in the Americas, but in 2016, it arrived and invaded Africa, and from there, it spread quickly in 2018 to India, and in 2019 to Sri Lanka and other Asian countries. The patterns of spread and colonization are similar to the trends observed for the Erythrina gall wasp, Quadrastichus erythrinae Kim which reached the Philippines around 2005 and killed coral trees up to 2012. Other invasive species that apparently show the same routes are the coconut leaf beetle, Brontispa longissimi Gestro, and possibly also, the spread of the rigid coconut scale, Aspidiotus rigidus Reyne from Indonesia and the Philippines to Vietnam. Extreme weather events attributed to the current climate change as well as inevitable consequences of global trade and international travel are among the suspected contributory factors in these current aggressive spread of invasive species like the FAW.
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