Niche modeling of Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hem.: Psyllidae), in Iran

Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama, is one of the most serious pests of citrus in the world. In addition to its direct feeding damage, it is as a vector of the greening disease pathogen, Huanglongbing. In order to effective management of this pest, study of its potential geographical distribution is needed. In this study, the ecological niche modeling (based on the 23 occurrence localities) was used to predict the potential geographical distribution and the key factors affecting the potential distribution of the D. citri in Iran, using Geographic Information System (GIS) and Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) related softwares. The results showed that the main suitable areas for D. citri distribution are restricted to South Kerman, Southeast Fars, Central and Eastern Hormozgan, and also Central Sistan-Bluchestan (West to East). Moreover, some areas are less suitable (Boshehr and Khozestan provinces) and unsuitable (North Iran). The arid climate with moderate winter as well as very warm summer was identified as the most suitable climate for D. citri distribution. Based on the jackknife test, the annual temperature range has the most effective role in the D. citri distribution modeling. The Area Under Curve (AUC) was 0.988 indicating a perfect prediction.