Trichome production and variation in young plant resistance to the specialist insect herbivorePlutella xylostellaamong natural populations ofArabidopsis lyrata

The arcsine square root transformation has long been standard procedure when analyzing proportional data in ecology, with applications in data sets containing binomial and non-binomial response variables. Here, we argue that the arcsine transform should not be used in either circumstance. For binomial data, logistic regression has greater interpretability and higher power than analyses of transformed data. However, it is important to check the data for additional unexplained variation, i.e., overdispersion, and to account for it via the inclusion of random effects in the model if found. For non-binomial data, the arcsine transform is undesirable on the grounds of interpretability, and because it can produce nonsensical predictions. The logit transformation is proposed as an alternative approach to address these issues. Examples are presented in both cases to illustrate these advantages, comparing various methods of analyzing proportions including untransformed, arcsine- and logit-transformed linear models and logistic regression (with or without random effects). Simulations demonstrate that logistic regression usually provides a gain in power over other methods.

Agricultural intensification and greater production of Brassica vegetable and oilseed crops over the past two decades have increased the pest status of the diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella L., and it is now estimated to cost the world economy US$4-5 billion annually. Our understanding of some fundamental aspects of DBM biology and ecology, particularly host plant relationships, tritrophic interactions, and migration, has improved considerably but knowledge of other aspects, e.g., its global distribution and relative abundance, remains surprisingly limited. Biological control still focuses almost exclusively on a few species of hymenopteran parasitoids. Although these can be remarkably effective, insecticides continue to form the basis of management; their inappropriate use disrupts parasitoids and has resulted in field resistance to all available products. Improved ecological understanding and the availability of a series of highly effective selective insecticides throughout the 1990s provided the basis for sustainable and economically viable integrated pest management (IPM) approaches. However, repeated reversion to scheduled insecticide applications has resulted in resistance to these and more recently introduced compounds and the breakdown of IPM programs. Proven technologies for the sustainable management of DBM currently exist, but overcoming the barriers to their sustained adoption remains an enormous challenge.