Predicting potential distribution of chestnut phylloxerid (Hemiptera: Phylloxeridae) based on GARP and Maxent ecological niche models

The chestnut phylloxerid, Moritziella castaneivora, has been recently recorded as a forest pest in China. It heavily damaged chestnut trees and has caused serious economic losses in some main chestnut production areas. In order to effectively monitor and manage this pest, it is necessary to investigate its potential geographical distribution worldwide. In this study, we used two ecological niche models, Genetic Algorithm for Rule‐set Production (GARP) and Maximum Entropy (Maxent), along with the geographical distribution of the host plants, Japanese chestnut (Castanea crenata) and Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima), to predict the potential geographical distribution of M. castaneivora. The results suggested that the suitable distribution areas based on GARP were general consistent with those based on Maxent, but GARP predicted distribution areas that extended more in size than did Maxent. The results also indicated that the suitable areas for chestnut phylloxerid infestations were mainly restricted to Northeast China (northern Liaoning), East China (southern Shandong, northern Jiangsu and western Anhui), North China (southern Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin), Central China (eastern Hubei and southern Henan), Japan (Kinki, Shikoku and Tohoku) and most parts of the Korean Peninsula. In addition, some provinces of central and western China were predicted to have low suitability or unsuitable areas (e.g. Xinjiang, Qinghai and Tibet). A jackknife test in Maxent showed that the average precipitation in July was the most important environmental variable affecting the distribution of this pest species. Consequently, the study suggests several reasonable regulations and management strategies for avoiding the introduction or invasion of this high‐risk chestnut pest to these potentially suitable areas.