Incidence and distribution of Sufetula anania on pineapple (Ananas comosus ‘MD-2’)

An experiment was run on a commercial pineapple (Ananas comosus ‘MD-2’) plantation to determine the incidence and the way of invasion of Sufetula anania within the plantation. In 10 terraces of 16 beds each, located adjacent to the forest, the pest was sampled in the first bed next to the forest, and in bed 4 and bed 8. In each of those beds, 10 plants were monitored for the pest, starting 30 days after planting and thereafter every 7 days up to 72 days after planting. In the first evaluation, a higher (P=0.0048) incidence was found in bed 1 with 20% more individuals compared to bed 8, where the pest was not detected. In the same way, the average population was higher (P=0.0048) on bed 1 with 0.2 individuals per plant compared to 0 on the plants of bed 8. Through the evaluations, a fast invasion with high incidence was observed on the first bed, while at bed 8 it was delayed. Averaging the values of the 7 evaluations carried out, the lowest incidence (P<0.0001) and population (P<0.0001) were found on bed 8 with 26.4% and 0.49 compared to 69.6% and 1.0 individuals per plant in bed 1, respectively. This gives insight into how Sufetula anania individuals invade from the forest to the plantation, which means that vegetation acts as its refuge in the absence of the crop. If management practices are completed on time, they could be addressed only to areas close to the forest and primary channels.