Studying the Interaction Between Asphondylia punica and Its Host Plant, Atriplex halimus, and Predicting Their Potential Geographic Distribution in Egypt by Using Maxent Technique

Ragab, Sanad H.; Kamel, Mohamed; Bream, Ahmed S.; Moursy, Mohamed M.

doi:10.21608/eajbsa.2020.117504

Studying the Interaction Between Asphondylia punica and Its Host Plant, Atriplex halimus, and Predicting Their Potential Geographic Distribution in Egypt by Using Maxent Technique

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt

² Department of Environmental Basic Sciences, Institute of Environmental Studies and Research, Ain shams University, Egypt

³ Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt

10.21608/eajbsa.2020.117504

Abstract

Galls and their inducing insects represent one of the most challenges that facing entomologists because of their unique life history and the highly characteristic gall structure. Gall-inducing insects and their distributions in Egypt of little studies which depend on few researchers from countries of Europe during their scientific journeys. Asphondylia punica (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) is associated with one of the most important medicinal plants, the Atriplex halimus (Chenopodiaceae). A. punica induces fusiform swellings galls on the stem of A. halimus with multiple chambers. The interaction between the gall inducer Asphondylia punica and its host plant A. halimus were studied. The results indicated that there was a significant correlation between the number of galls per plant and the plant cover but there was no correlation between the number of galls per plant and altitude. The predicted distributions of Asphondylia punica in Egypt were done by using MaxEnt technique. The results showed that the prediction distribution of Asphondylia punica and its host plant Atriplex halimus is concentrated in Mediterranean coastal regions

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