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Title: VALIDATION OF INSECT SAMPLING PLANS USING A RESAMPLING APPROACH: SOFTWARE AND ANALYSIS

Author
item Naranjo, Steven
item HUTCHISON, WILLIAM - UNIV. OF MINNESOTA

Submitted to: American Entomologist
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/7/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Sampling is a fundamental component of most pest management programs and an important tool in many field research projects. The data used to develop a sample plan often originates from a specific area over a short period of time, but the sample plan is then used in situations representing a novel array of conditions. Validation is thus necessary in order to gauge the usefulness of a sample plan in these situations. We present a robust methodology for testing common sampling plans and further describe public- domain computer software designed to implement this procedure. Plans that can be tested include two fixed-precision sequential plans based on enumerative count data, and two (one sequential and one fixed) plans based on presence/absence counts. Basically, the software repeatedly selects observations, at random, from real field data sets, independent of those used to develop the sample plan. From this resampling the average performance of a sample plan, as well as the variability in performance ca be estimated. Examples of using the software are presented for sampling plans developed for three pest species, sweetpotato whitefly, pink bollworm and striped cucumber beetle. Results indicate that these plans generally perform as expected, but also demonstrate that there is great variability in performance from one use to the next.

Technical Abstract: Many sampling plans have been developed for a wide variety of insects of economic importance. However, relatively few plans have been adequately tested to gauge their utility in the field. The software presented here should facilitate use of an approach in which actual field data sets are resampled numerous times to arrive at average performance values as well as sthe associated variances. The major strength of this resampling approach i that analyses are based on actual distributions of insect populations, not those specified by a theoretical model. A limitation is that the use of this approach does require additional planning and effort to collect an adequate number of independent data sets. The software (RVSP) can be used to test two fixed-precision sequential sampling plans based on enumerative counts, and two (one sequential and one fixed) sampling plans based on binomial counts. The software is user-friendly and permits easy entry of sample plan parameters and data sets. We present details of the required input data, and output generated by RVSP. We further provide example analyses for three pest insect species to demonstrate the use of RVSP for evaluating several different sampling plans.