Dactylopius opuntiae Cockerell (Hemiptera: Dactylopiidae), an emerging global threat for Opuntia spp: a bibliometric analysis

Dactylopius opuntiae Cockerell (Hemiptera: Dactylopiidae) is recognized worldwide as a successful biological control agent for some invasive species of Opuntia Mill. (Caryophyllales: Cactaceae) and a primary pest where this species is cultivated for commercial purposes, which has renewed its scientific interest. Therefore, the objective of the research was to characterize regularities of the scientific production and identify emerging research trends on D. opuntiae, using one-dimensional and multidimensional bibliometric indicators. The metadata of the scientific publications contained in the Biological Abstracts, Cab abstracts, Crossref, Google Academic, Dimensions, Microsoft Academic Search, Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Scopus, and Zoological Record databases was searched and retrieved, condensed in an of 193 documents collection spanning from 1848 to 2021 using the Zotero® bibliographic reference manager. Publish or Perish® and Excel® were used to generate one-dimensional indicators and VOSviewer® for multi-dimensional indicators. Eighty percent of the publications on D. opuntiae were registered in the last 20 years, which denotes the recently acquired importance of the species. The study allowed us to identify emerging research trends and showed where they are located and who makes up the clusters or research groups, and the addressed topics, which could facilitate the establishment of collaboration networks and contribute to the scientific development of D. opuntiae.