MEASURE OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN EXPERTS ON APPLE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT

Although damage evaluation is an important and frequent exercise in ec onomic entomology, there are no quantitative studies on inter-rater ag reement of experts. In this experiment conducted during the 50(th) New York, New England and Canadian Pest Management Conference, four teams of experts independently estimated the damage on 200 apples at harves t. The participants identified 22 types of damage caused by insects, 8 by diseases, and 8 related to other causes. For each type of damage a n average measure of agreement was calculated. The lowest average agre ements were found in plum curculio (Conotrachelus nenuphar) [Coleopter a: Curculionidae] damage (71.8%), tarnished plant bug (Lygus lineolari s) [Hemiptera : Miridae] damage (83.2%), and by early lepidoptera dama ge (87.1%). The usefulness of inter-rater agreement experiments is dis cussed in the context of many situations pertaining to crop protection .