  Insect-borne plant diseases recur commonly in wild plants and in agricultural
crops, and are responsible for severe losses in terms of produce yield and
monetary return. Mathematical models of insect-borne plant diseases are
therefore an essential tool to help predicting the progression of an epidemic
disease and aid in decision making when control strategies are to be
implemented in the field. While retaining a generalized applicability of the
proposed model to plant epidemics vectored by insects, we specifically
investigated the epidemics of Flavescence dor\'ee phytoplasma (FD) in grapevine
plant Vitis vinifera specifically transmitted by the leafhopper Scaphoideus
titanus. The epidemiological model accounted for life-cycle stage of S.
titanus, FD pathogen cycle within S. titanus and V. vinifera, vineyard setting,
and agronomic practices. The model was comprehensively tested against
biological S. titanus life cycle and FD epidemics data collected in various
research sites in Piemonte, Italy, over multiple years. The work presented here
represents a unique suite of governing equations tested on existing independent
data and sets the basis for further modelling advances and possible
applications to investigate effectiveness of real-case epidemics control
strategies and scenarios.
