Online version of the technical publication of Maddison (1993) "UNDP/FAO-SPEC Survey of Agricultural Pests and Diseases in the South Pacific Technical Report Volume 3. Pests and other Fauna associated with Plants"

       

Trevor K. Crosby
Landcare Research, Private Bag 92170, Auckland, New Zealand

19 June 2009

Go to collection contents (index) Go to NZAC contents

Maddison's (1993) technical publication has been very difficult to access because it was published on microfiche with only a limited number of copies. Copies were distributed to the seven countries in the survey (American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Kingdom of Tonga, Samoa, and Tuvalu) as well as libraries of agencies funding or associated with the work. It has never been widely available. Consequently it has been overlooked by many researchers and agencies interested in animal–plant associations that are significant in agriculture.

The project countries had requested, for quarantine purposes, to be aware of threats from elsewhere in the Pacific basin, as well as of major crop pests throughout the world. To meet this request, therefore, Dr Maddison compiled information on plant–animal associations for about 3600 plant taxa from 42 families by making a thorough literature search of over 9500 reference sources for such associations (cut-off point the end of 1984). In addition he checked information provided from specimens (approximately 500,000) collected in the entomological survey and which are held in trust for these Pacific nations in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Landcare Research, Auckland. He annotated records with symbols so the significance of the association could be quickly checked (see section below on "Symbols used before scientific names of animals").

It has now become possible to provide online access to the technical publication of Maddison (1993) by providing downloadable, searchable PDFs. These PDFs should help to widen the use of the information in Maddison's (1993) technical publication.

The information in these downloadable PDFs remains in the same format as in the microfiches. A summary PDF is also available for each of these plant–animal association PDFs.

Searchable PDFs of Technical Report Volume 3, Maddison (1993)

Introductory section (0.04 MB)
Botanical index ( 0.83 MB)
Botanical Notes about some species (1348 pages, 2.49 MB)

Plant–Animal associations, AA0001 Agavaceae — AH0001 Arales (547 pages, 1.03 MB)
Plant–Animal associations, AI0001 Arecaceae — AI0143 Dypsis spp. (531 pages, 1.05 MB)
Plant–Animal associations, AI0144 Elaeis guineensis — AI0406 palms (637 pages, 1.02 MB)
Plant–Animal associations, AJ0001 Asparagaceae — AU0001 Cyperales (525 pages, 0.97 MB)
Plant–Animal associations, AV0001 Dioscoreaceae — BM0031 Marantaceae (449 pages, 0.81 MB)
Plant–Animal associations, BN0001 Musaceae — BP0726 Orchidaceae (617 pages, 1.11 MB)
Plant–Animal associations, BQ0001 Pandanaceae — BT0242 Buchloe dactyloides (552 pages, 1.01 MB)
Plant–Animal associations, BT0243 Calamagrostis arundinacea — BT0711 Muhlenbergia spp. (645 pages, 1.19 MB)
Plant–Animal associations, BT0712 Nardus stricta — BT0961 Rottboellia spp. (748 pages, 1.41 MB)
Plant–Animal associations, BT0962 Saccharum barberi — BT1062 Spartina spp. (637 pages, 1.23 MB)

References, numerical sequence (317 pages, 1.79 MB)
References, author alphabetical (382 pages, 1.77 MB)

Some insect records for Pacific countries (0.23 MB)

How to find out about a plant and its animal associates

1. Consult the Botanical Index using the common or scientific name of the plant you want to check. This will provide you with a plant code number. The 5200 pages of information provided details for approximately 3600 species from 42 families of plants.  The text files for the plant families are alphabetically sequenced, to as far as the genus Spartina in the family Poaceae..  Dr Maddison has handwritten notes in a `shorthand' form for the remaining families. Solanaceae is the only major family of concern to the Pacific region that should be put into electronic form.

For example, taro or dalo, Colocasia esculenta (Linnaeus) Schott has been indexed under the following four entries in the index:

Colocasia esculenta (Linnaeus) Schott;
dalo;
esculenta (Linnaeus) Schott, Colocasia; and
taro.

From the index you find that taro has been assigned the plant code AG0069, and has the bold number 01 indicating it is on microfiche number 1 of the Plant - Animal set of microfiches. 

2.  Check the appropriate PDF file. The PDF containing information for taro, AG0069, has the plant code range of AA0001 to AH0001.

3.  Locate the plant entry in the PDF by using the "Find" function.  The plant codes are arranged in alphanumeric order.  Therefore taro is between plant codes AG0068 and AG0070. The plant codes are on the left-hand side of a page, followed by a set of `=' signs across the page.  For example, the entry for taro is:

AG0069 ====================================
          COLOCASIA ESCULENTA (Linnaeus) Schott 
              TARO or DALO

4.  The animal associates found with the plant are listed sequentially.  For the principal groups the order is as follows:  Blattodea (cockroaches), Coleoptera (beetles), Dermaptera (earwigs), Diptera (flies), Heteroptera (true bugs), Homoptera (aphids, scale insects, planthoppers), Isoptera (termites), Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Orthoptera (crickets and grasshoppers), Phasmida (stick insects), Psocoptera (barklice and booklice), Thysanoptera (thrips); then Acari (mites), Araneae (spiders), Pseudoscorpiones (false scorpions), Chilopoda (centipedes), Diplopoda (millipedes), Crustacea (crabs, woodlice, etc.); then Platyhelminthes (flatworms, etc.), Annelida (earthworms, etc.), Mollusca (slugs and snails); and finally Chordata — Osteichthyes (bony fishes), Amphibia (frogs, salamanders, etc.), Reptilia (lizards, snakes, turtles, etc.), Aves (birds), Mammalia (mammals).

6.  Check out the information for an animal associate.  For example, the scarab beetle Papuana armicollis Fabricius (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) has the entry:

>>*Papuana armicollis Fabricius - "Taro Beetle"
        Adults bore in tubers                           Melanesia
        (#1011,#4269)

Line 1 gives the scientific and common names of the animal.  The symbols preceding the scientific name `>>*' indicate that this species is an important pest in the Pacific, and is a major pest of the plant or crop under consideration.  A full list of symbols follows at the end of this example.

Line 2 gives a statement of the damage caused, and the general distribution of the animal.

Line 3 gives the numbers to check in the References (numerical sequence) section of the PDFs for details.  #1011 refers to a technical paper by Johnston, A. (1963) on fungi recorded from the South East Asia and Pacific region, and #4269 refers to a book on taro edited by Wang, J.-K. (1983).

Symbols used before scientific names of animals

> The taxon (e.g., species, subspecies, genus) is found in the Pacific Region.

>> The taxon is found in the Pacific Region and is a major pest of the plant or crop under consideration.

* The taxon is an important pest of one or more crops.  This symbol is also used in instances where the pest causes minor damage to a wide range of crops — occasionally these pests can cause serious damage to plants growing under stressed conditions.

+ The pest causes serious damage to the crop, but as yet has not been found in the Pacific Region.

V The pest is known to be a vector of virus or virus-like diseases.

The following symbols indicate that an occurrence is not of economic importance to the plant:

[..] Square brackets around an entry indicate that the record is not considered to be economically important.

C The record is considered to be no more than a casual occurrence on this particular host (i.e., the animal probably has no association with the host, but was found resting on the leaves, flowers, etc.).

E Experiments on feeding on this host have been conducted.  The animal has not been recorded feeding on this host in natural conditions although it has done so under laboratory conditions.

I The occurrence of the animal on the host under consideration has been inferred from the reference(s) cited, but no definite records have been seen.  For example, one reference gives a list of pests of coconut and oil palm; when there is no other reference to confirm the occurrence of the pests on both coconut and oil plant, they have been included as inferred records on the non-verified host.

L Animals recovered from the leaf litter associated with the plant.  Note, however, that this fauna includes saprophages and sometimes larval, pupal, or adult stages of pests attacking the plant.

P Predators and parasitoids.

Q The occurrence of a given animal on a plant or plant product is represented only by quarantine interception records.  These quarantine records are not regarded as evidence of occurrence in a given country.  However, they are an indication of possible occurrences requiring confirmation.

R The insect has been reared in the laboratory on the plant in question.  Such records may indicate food plants which would not be eaten in the wild.

S Saprophages — animals feeding on dead or dying (rotting) tissues.

X The reference(s) cited indicate that the plant under consideration is not a host for the pest.


Background to information contained in volume 3

Maddison (1989) gave an account of the background to the entomological survey of the crop pests for the seven SPEC countries (Maddison, P.A. 1989.  General introduction and account of the entomological survey. UNDP/FAO-SPEC Survey of Agricultural Pests and Diseases in the South Pacific.  Technical Report.  Volume 1, pages 17-19.). The countries were American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Kingdom of Tonga, Samoa, and Tuvalu.

This report is based on a literature search of over 9500 reference sources, as well as information provided from specimens (approximately 500,000) collected in the entomological survey and which are held in trust for the Pacific nations in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Manaaki Whenua — Landcare Research, Auckland.

Information on entomology in the Pacific is scattered through many journals, books, and unpublished records.  The Project countries had requested, for quarantine purposes, to be aware of threats from elsewhere in the Pacific basin as well as of major crop pests throughout the world.  The cut-off point for the literature search was the end of 1984; only a few important references published after this time have been included.

The procedure followed in assembling the data on pest/crop associations was to scan a wide range of `literature' and assemble the information in electronic text files. The literature was thoroughly searched, so later users can be confident that, where a reference is included, all useful host records have been extracted.  This procedure has resulted in a small percentage of spurious records being included.

It was decided early in the Survey that it was important to include information on parasites and predators and on `casual' occurrences on plants, particularly since the latter are frequently included in batches of specimens sent for identification.  Some literature on vertebrates (including domestic animals) is cited since these can on occasion cause more `damage' than many insect species.

Early in 1993 Dr Maddison ceased employment with Landcare Research N.Z. Ltd.  In August 1993 Dr Trevor K. Crosby was asked to bring the Volume 3 report to completion using Dr Maddison's VAX-based computer files.  This report contains all the computer text files that had been sufficiently completed by Dr Maddison.

Cataloguing-in-publication (for original publication)
MADDISON, Peter A.
    Pests and other fauna associated with plants, with botanical accounts of plants / by Peter A. Maddison.
– Auckland : Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research New Zealand Ltd, 1993.
— (Technical report / UNDP/FAO-SPEC Survey of Agricultural Pests and Diseases in the South Pacific ; vol. 3)

    I. Title  II.  Manaaki Whenua — Landcare Research N.Z. Ltd  III.  South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation  IV.  United Nations Development Programme  V.  Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations  VI.  UNDP/FAO-SPEC Survey of Agricultural Pests and Diseases in the South Pacific  VII.  Series

UDC 632(9)

 

[Last updated March 2011] Trevor K. Crosby, Email Send email to Trevor Crosby