Current Research

My interest in research is divided in: 

Image Analysis Applied to Pest Management

This year (2017) I am collaborating with Juan A. Villanueva-Jimenez and Eduardo Zozaya-Becerra (Cluster Institute) in a proyect to develop an automated  plant disease recognition system. 

Spatial Analysis of Insect Pests

I am interested in applying statistical tools to assess the risk of pest damage and the potential of invasive pests to enter Mexico, that is, in applying GIS and wide-area analysis to estimate pest distributions.  To achieve these goals, I am using Mathematica, along with ArcGis and open source software like MaxEnt, R and Octave. At field level, I am also interested in the assessment of the spatial disposition of tropical insect pests .

Relationship between temperature, precipitation and Pr values (from maxEnt) of spittle bugs in Veracruz. Graphic prepared with Mathematica.

Aerial view of citrus plants in Martinez de la Torre, Veracruz, unpublished data. Graphic composed using image overlay and KML.

Ornamental Insects

My second interest in research is to analyze the scientific problems derived from the sustainable use of natural insect populations to produce handmade crafts. Craft work is an option for rural areas where insect biodiversity is high. Several countries around the world manage natural populations of insects.

We built a Commemorative display for Campus Veracruz at its 25 anniversary to show the diversity of insects in Veracruz.

Network of similarity among butterflies based on color. Graphic generated with Mathematica.

2016

A paper has just been published about ornamental butterflies in Veracruz, Mexico. The paper addresses the questions of what butterfly species are preferred by people to make  souvenirs and what features prompt people to like them. A link for the paper is here:

Size doesn’t matter but color does: Preference of Neotropical butterfly species to make souvenirs

2015

I have finished a paper related to the spatial distribution of Rhyssomatus nigerrimus in Mexico. R. nigerrimus is a novel pest of soybeans. The published paper can be accessed from this LINK.

R. nigerrimus
damage
foliage damage

Pictures of Rhyssomatus nigerrimus. source: http://www.oleaginosas.org/impr_477.shtml

The vulnerability of soybean in northeast Mexico is:

And in the southern states of Mexico:

With Lizbeth Hernández-Landa, a PhD candidate, we are preparing a manuscript regarding the spatial distribution of Diaphorina citri in both orange jasmine shrubs and lime trees in central Veracruz.

With Juan Carlos-García González, we are preparing a manuscript related to the factors affecting the adult populations density of spittle bugs in sugar cane.

with Jazmin Jacinto-Padilla we are estimating the distribution of some butterflies species that have importance as prime material to make crafts and art.

2014

I was analyzing foreign pest interceptions at international entry points by SENASICA to estimate the risk of introducing regulated pests into Mexico. Entry points were ports, airports and land crossing points. We delivered a Technical Report to SENASICA. We use state-of-the-art software and techniques to analyze the complexities of interactions involved.

Network of relationships between countries (black diamonds), pests (green squares) and imported products carrying the pests (orange circles).

Another work in progress is analyze the spatio-temporal dynamics of Diaphorina citri along a transect of locations in Central Veracruz. We are doing sampling both in lime and orange jasmine to compare the population dynamics in both hosts and how their density changes from place to place. The research is done by Lizbeth Hernandez Landa, a Ph.D. student. Currently (2015) she is in Weslaco Tx as a visiting researcher working with Dr. Raul Villanueva (http://southtexas.tamu.edu/staff-directory/raul-t-villanueva/).

Another research is aimed to determine the relationship between densities of nymphs and adult populations of the sugarcane spittle bugs (Aenoeolamia spp. and Prosapia simulans) in Central Veracruz. Juan C. Garcia-Gonzalez is a M.Sc. student doing the work as his thesis.

2010-2013

I worked with a national team of specialists aimed to develop management strategies for Diaphorina citri and Huanglongbing (HLB) in México. D. citri is an introduced pest in Mexico, vector of Huanglongbing. By applying MaxEnt and other tools, I estimated the distribution of Diaphorina and Orange Jasmine in Mexico. I also use Google maps and mashup technologies to provide geo-referenced information about pest risk status. The project is described in the following link (spanish): Sitio Diaphorina. We published two papers regarding the distribution of Diaphorina citri and Murraya paniculata in Mexico.

Potential worldwide distribution of Diaphorina citri based on climate occurrence counts in Mexico. Source: 

https://sites.google.com/site/diaphorina/diaphorina

dist murraya worldwide

Potential worldwide distribution of Murraya paniculata. Points represent observed plants, surface are suitability values computed with MaxEnt. Source: https://sites.google.com/site/diaphorina/limonaria

Potential distribution of Murraya paniculata in Mexico. Source: Lopez-Collado J; Lopez-Arroyo JI. 2013.  Potential distribution of orange jasmine (Murraya paniculata) in Mexico. Tropical and Subtropical Agroecosystems 16: 127-132.

2012-2013

Another project I was involved with was to estimate the distribution of spittle bugs species, which are sugarcane pests. My work there aimed to estimate the geographic distribution of the different spittle bugs species and implement a pest risk, web-based information system, aimed to provide technicians and producers a risk assessment of spittle bugs damage. The project is described in the following link (spanish): Sitio Mosca Pinta.

Last update: November 2015