The effects of temperature on the melon thrips, Thrips palmi Karny (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), preimaginal development, survival, fecundity, longevity of females and males, and population growth were investigated at 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, and 31° C, 70–80% RH, and a photoperiod of 12:12 L:D. The results indicated that the duration of egg, larval, and pupal stages was significantly influenced by increased temperature. The egg-to-adult developmental period of T. palmi declined from 35.7 to 9.6 days as the temperature increased from 16 to 31° C. The developmental threshold temperature estimated for egg-to-adult was 11.25° C, with a thermal constant of 196.1 degreedays. The developmental threshold temperature was 13.91, 11.82, 9.36, and 10.45° C for adult preoviposition period, total preoviposition period, female longevity, and male longevity, respectively. The thermal constants for completing the adult preoviposition period, total preoviposition period, female longevity, and male longevity were 29.3, 227.3, 454.6, and 344.8 degreedays, respectively. Female longevity was found to be shortest at 31° C (18.7 days) and longest at 16° C (56.7 days), and male longevity was shortest at 31° C (15.5 days) and longest at 16° C (50.7 days). Fecundity was highest at 25° C (64.2 eggs/female) and lowest at 16° C (23.4 eggs/female). The population trend index of T. palmi was highest at 25° C (31.3) and lowest at 16° C (7.6). The optimal developmental temperature for T. palmi in eggplant, Solanum melongena L. (Solanales: Solanaceae), was determined to be 25° C.

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Thrips, the sole vector of plant Tospovirus, are major pests of many agricultural crops throughout the world. Molecular approaches have been applied in recent decades to identify these minute and morphologically difficult to distinguish insects. In this study, sequences of internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) region of 15 agronomically important thrips, including several virus transmission species, have been analyzed in order to design species-specific primers for multiplex PCR and probes for microarray assay. That the ITS1 sequence distances within species were smaller than those among species suggests that the ITS1 fragment can be used for thrips species identification. The specificity and stability of these primers, combined with universal paired primers, were tested and verified in multiplex PCR. Using these specific primers as probes, microarray assay showed that PCR products of all thrips species hybridized consistently to their corresponding probes, though some signals were weak. We have demonstrated that multiplex PCR using specific primers based on ITS1 sequences is a simple, reliable, and cost-effective diagnostic tool for thrips species identification. Moreover, the DNA microarray assay is expected to extend into a reliable high-throughput screening tool for the vast numbers of thrips.

Larval surveillance is the central approach for monitoring dengue vector populations in Indonesia. However, traditional larval indices are ineffective for measuring mosquito population dynamics and predicting the dengue transmission risk. We conducted a 14-month ovitrap surveillance. Eggs and immature mosquitoes were collected on a weekly basis from an urban village of Bandung, namely Sekejati. Ovitrap-related indices, namely positive house index (PHI), ovitrap index (OI), and ovitrap density index (ODI), were generated and correlated with environmental variables, housing type (terraced or high-density housing), ovitrap placement location (indoor or outdoor; household or public place), and local dengue cases. Our results demonstrated that Aedes aegypti was significantly predominant compared with Aedes albopictus at each housing type and ovitrap placement location. Ovitrap placement locations and rainfall were the major factors contributing to variations in PHI, OI, and ODI, whereas the influences of housing type and temperature were subtle. Indoor site values were significantly positively correlated to outdoor sites’ values for both OI and ODI. OI and ODI values from households were best predicted with those from public places at 1- and 0-week lags, respectively. Weekly rainfall values at 4- and 3-week lags were the best predictors of OI and ODI for households and public places, respectively. Monthly mean PHI, OI, and ODI were significantly associated with local dengue cases. In conclusion, ovitrap may be an effective tool for monitoring the population dynamics of Aedes mosquitoes, predicting dengue outbreaks, and serving as an early indicator to initiate environmental clean-up. Ovitrap surveillance is easy for surveyors if they are tasked with a certain number of ovitraps at a designated area, unlike the existing larval surveillance methodology, which entails identifying potential breeding sites largely at the surveyors’ discretion. Ovitrap surveillance may reduce the influence of individual effort in larval surveillance that likely causes inconsistency in results.

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