ABSTRACT
Indirect effects of climate are mediated through host plant responses, natural enemies, competitors, and disease. Different climates will produce climatographs of different shapes, locations on the temperature or rainfall axes, or both. The ecoclimatic index is a combination of growth and stress indices that describe the response of the insect to the climate of a given location. The Sahara formed a natural boundary which would prevent the fly from moving directly south, but if it reached the Nile river in neighboring Egypt it could migrate to more hospitable climates south and possibly into Europe. R. W. Sutherst & G. F. Maywald and Maywald & Sutherst described a computer based system, CLIMEX, for matching climates in ecology. CLIMEX can be used to provide information concerning the possibility of increased quarantine threat as the result of climate change. CLIMEX can quickly provide much needed information for subjective risk assessment; however, it is a relatively coarse method of data summary.
