Spatio-Temporal Distribution and Fixed-Precision Sampling Plan of (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in Florida Blueberry.

Hood is an invasive and foliar pest of Florida blueberry that reduces plant growth by feeding on new leaf growth. A sampling plan is needed to make informed control decisions for in blueberry. Fourteen blueberry fields in central Florida were surveyed in 2017 and 2018 after summer pruning to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of and to develop a fixed-precision sampling plan. A sampling unit of ten blueberry shoots (with four to five leaves each) was collected from one blueberry bush at each point along a 40 × 40 m grid. Field counts of varied largely ranging from zero to 1122 adults and larvae per sampling unit. had aggregated distribution that was consistent within fields and temporally stable between summers, according to Taylor's power law (TPL) (aggregation parameter, = 1.57), probability distributions (56 out of 70 sampling occasions fit the negative binomial distribution), Lloyd's index ( > 1 in 94% occasions), and Spatial Analysis by Distance IndicEs (31% had significant clusters). The newly developed fixed-precision sampling plan required 167, 42, seven, or three sampling units to estimate a nominal mean density of 20 per sampling unit with a precision of 5%, 10%, 25%, or 40%, respectively. New knowledge on distribution will aid in evaluating the timing and effectiveness of control measures.