Pitch canker, caused by the pathogen Fusarium circinatum, is a serious disease of pines, Pinus species. It is a threat to natural and planted pine forests, and to date it has invaded countries across five continents. Pine-feeding insects can play a key role in the epidemiology of the disease, as...

The prediction of new disease emergence, associated with new pathogens or not, remains a difficult and controversial topic. The main factors driving epidemics are often only identified several years after outbreaks, generally revealing that a limited number of factors are associated with the...

Olive (Olea europaea) trees exhibiting leaf scorch or branch dieback symptoms in California were surveyed for the xylem-limited, fastidious bacterium Xylella fastidiosa. Only approximately 17% of diseased trees tested positive for X. fastidiosa by polymerase chain reaction, and disease symptoms...

Epidemiology of plant diseases caused by phytoplasmas depends on vector's biology and its preference to the host plant. Grapevine yellows (GY) caused by stolbur phytoplasma (16SrXII-A subgroup, 'Candidatus Phytoplasma solani'), during last 15 years became one of the economically most important...

Information is extensive on the consequences of climate change on diverse spheres, such as an increase in rates of desertification, increase in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes and tropical storms, and changes in the patterns of distribution and reproduction of flora and fauna. This paper...

We report results from a survey of palm-associated Fulgoroidea (planthoppers), following the recent discoveries of Haplaxius crudus, a known palm phytoplasma vector, and of other potential planthopper vectors in Puerto Rico. The survey, which sampled from 40 sites, resulted in the identification of ...

In 2011, an outbreak of banana bunchy top disease (BBTD) caused by Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV; genus Babuvirus, family Nanoviridae) was reported in the Republic of Benin. Plants infected at early growth stages are severely dwarfed and do not bear fruit. BBTV is transmitted by the banana aphid ...

In Oman, the bark beetle Hypocryphalus mangiferae is closely associated with trees affected by mango sudden decline disease caused by Ceratocystis manginecans. Although it has previously been assumed that this beetle plays a role in the dispersal of the pathogen, this has not been established...

The whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is an important pest due to its capacity for producing strong infestations and transmitting plant viruses. The New World putative species of B. tabaci complex (NW) is the indigenous whitefly of the Americas, but only the invasive...

The rapid geographical expansion of the cassava mosaic disease (CMD) pandemic, caused by cassava mosaic geminiviruses, has devastated cassava crops in 12 countries of East and Central Africa since the late 1980s. Region-level surveys have revealed a continuing pattern of annual spread westward and...