Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) is one of the main crops in Latin American and African countries, its almonds being marketed to produce chocolate. However, different biotic factors can negatively affect the crop production, especially on small farms where management by farmers is scarce or nonexistent. Lethal wilt (Ceratocystis cacaofunesta Engelbrecht & Harrington) together with beetle borers (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), continue to be the main problems affecting cocoa. It has been observed that both organisms interact intrinsically inside the trunks of cacao trees. Despite the importance of this interaction, in general, the countless research and review articles carried out to date have focused mainly on studying each biotic factor separately or have been addressed in a general way. Thus, in this review we mainly focus on the interaction between the Lethal wilt and the borer...

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis L.) is a crucial crop in Ecuador, considerably affected by black palm weevil Rhynchophorus palmarum L. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) for several years. Despite its importance, the behavior of the black weevil in Ecuador is not well comprehended presently. Therefore, this study aimed to predict infestation patterns of the black palm weevil in Ecuador using a mathematical model based on monitoring data. Data on the number of insects per trap from a commercial oil palm farm in Quinindé, Ecuador, was collected every two weeks for five years (2016-2020) and analyzed using the Classical Fourier (CF) spectrum and the Dickey-Fuller test to determine seasonality. The trend component of the data dropped from 16.33 in January 2017 to 11.96 in January 2019, with a fluctuation ranging from -0.11 to 2.50 observed for the entire data set. The results obtained after fitting th...