Arthropod Pests of Horticultural Crops in Tropical Asia

Agriculture plays a pivotal role in the economy of tropical Asia, but arthropod pests are major constraints to production. This book consolidates the research on pests of South and Southeast Asia, providing useful data for the establishment of sustainable pest management programs. It covers the main arthropod pests of twenty five major crops, with colour photographs of their adult and immature stages, their distribution, biology, disease vectors, symptoms of the damage they cause and their natural enemies. It is suitable for researchers, practitioners and policy makers of entomology, pest control and crop protection.

Rangaswamy Muniappan, Program Director of the Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP) at the Office of International Research, Education, and Development at Virginia Tech (U.S.), has specialized in economic entomology, biological control, and integrated pest management research in the tropics for over 45 years. He is an emeritus member of the International Organization for Biological Control and is currently responsible for managing the IPM CRSP and coordinating with USAID and project partner institutions in the United States and developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. He has over 300 research and extension publications.

Merle Shepard holds masters and Ph.D. degrees in entomology. He has taught graduate courses in insect ecology and integrated pest management at Clemson University for 14 years and directed the graduate degree programs of 30 students. While living in Southeast Asia for eight years, he was the Head of the Entomology Department of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and team leader for a project on integrated pest management in Indonesia. Among numerous other awards, he has received the Award of Excellence in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) from the Entomological Society of America. He has authored or co-authored over 150 refereed publications and has published five books and numerous book chapters. His research interests center on biological control of insects and IPM, and his interest in macrophotography is reflected in many of the images in this book.

Gerald Carner is an emeritus professor of entomology at Clemson University, where he taught entomology courses, conducted research, and directed graduate students for 36 years before retiring in 2006. His specialties are in insect pathology and microbial control, and the main thrust of his research has been the incorporation of microbial agents into IPM systems. He developed an interest in insects while growing up in India, eventually earning masters and Ph.D. degrees in entomology at Auburn University. Since his retirement, he has remained active in international projects. He lived in Indonesia for two years as the team leader for an earlier USAID-funded IPM project and is currently a team member of the Clemson University IPM CRSP project in Southeast Asia. He began photographing insects in the early 1970s, and his photographs have been published in numerous field guides, text books, journals, and magazines.

Dr. Peter Aun-Chuan Ooi has over 35 years of research and development experience in Asia. He has worked for Malaysia's Plant Protection Division of the Department of Agriculture, the International Institute of Biological Control, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, and, most recently, as Asian Regional Center Director of AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center (2005-2009). He has taught at the Asian Institute of Technology (Bangkok) and the Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), currently holding the Tan Sri Dato' Philip Kuok Foundation Professorial Chair for Agricultural Science at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Malaysia). He holds a PhD from the Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and has interests in tropical ecology, integrated pest management, and using science to help and empower farmers. He has contributed to over 225 publications on various topics related to ecology, entomology, and IPM.