When increasing abundance of insect vectors is manifest across multiple fields of a crop at the landscape scale, the phenomenon is sometimes referred to as insect superabundance. The phenomenon may reflect environmental factors (i.e. environmentally mediated insect superabundance, EMiS), including climatic change. A number of pathogens, however, are also known to modify the quality of infected plants as a resource for their insect vectors. In this paper, we term increasing vector abundance when associated with pathogen modification of plants as pathogen-mediated insect superabundance (henceforth PMiS). We investigate PMiS using a new epidemiological framework. We formalize a definition of PMiS and indicate the epidemiological mechanism by which it is most likely to arise. This study is motivated by the occurrence of a particularly destructive cassava virus epidemic that has been associated with superabundant whitefly populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Our results have implications for how PMiS can be distinguished from EMiS in field data. Above all, they represent a timely foundation for further investigations into the association between insect superabundance and plant pathogens.

中文翻译：

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什么是病原体介导的昆虫过剩？

当在景观尺度上作物的多个田地中昆虫载体的数量不断增加时，这种现象有时被称为昆虫过多。这种现象可能反映了环境因素（即环境介导的昆虫过剩，EMiS），包括气候变化。然而，已知许多病原体会改变受感染植物作为其昆虫载体资源的质量。在本文中，我们将与植物病原体修饰相关的载体丰度增加称为病原体介导的昆虫过剩（以下称为 PMiS）。我们使用新的流行病学框架调查 PMiS。我们正式确定了 PMiS 的定义，并指出了它最有可能发生的流行病学机制。这项研究的动机是发生了一种特别具有破坏性的木薯病毒流行病，这种流行病与撒哈拉以南非洲过多的粉虱种群有关。我们的结果对如何在现场数据中区分 PMiS 和 EMiS 具有影响。最重要的是，它们为进一步研究昆虫过多与植物病原体之间的关联奠定了及时的基础。