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I. Colonization
A. Refers to the field release and manipulation
of imported natural enemies for their establishment, and to
favor their spread and increase in a new
environment.
B. The natural enemy must be permanently established
in at least one locality for success to be claimed.
Then this serves as a locus for its
natural spread, or as a field colony and source of material for redistribution
efforts.
II. Insectary propagation of imported natural enemies
has been circumvented on occasion by repeated introductions
of the insects from abroad, followed by
their direct and periodic release in the field.
A. Direct releases may be necessitated by
economic considerations, difficulties of culture, or by lack of
adequate insectary facilities.
B. Direct releases are not encouraged by some
biological control workers who maintain that insectary
propagation offers several advantages:
1. provides adequate numbers to insure the
greatest latitude in the timing and geographical coverage of
releases.
2. insectary culture insures vigorous stocks of
natural enemies for release.
3. insectary propagation affords an excellent
opportunity for detailed study of the biologies and host
relationships.
III. Usually a few specimens from initial insectary stocks of an
imported natural enemy are released in the field on the
chance that these limited numbers may
be adequate to achieve establishment.
A. Such attempts usually fail to attain
establishment.
B. Worth a try, however, especially as it might
preserve some genetic variability that could be lost in culture.
IV. Ecological Factors Influencing
Success or Failure
A. Failure of natural enemies to adapt to the
climate of the release area has accounted for the largest number
of unsuccessful colonizations.
1. result of direct natural enemy mortality.
2. sometimes lack of synchronization between
host and natural enemy, in temperature climates especially.
B. Initial releases of a new species should
cover as diverse a climatic area as possible to insure that climatic
conditions most suited to that
particular species are encountered.
C. A series of strains of the species of
natural enemy ought to be tried, since some strains will be better
adapted to different climates.
D. Alternate hosts can be important in carrying
the natural enemy over unfavorable principal host seasons.
1.
oligophagous parasitoids may exploit a
number of host species to maintain their populations during times
of principal host scarcity.
2. initial releases made under varied
conditions can insure that environments frequented by suitable hosts
are encountered.
E. Already-established entomophagous species,
although less effective as natural enemies, may compete for
hosts and prevent the limited numbers of
individuals of a newly-liberated species from establishing a permanent
colony.
1. can be minimized by releasing large numbers
of a species at each colonization site.
2. release sites can be chosen where
competitors are rare.
3. host insects may be protected with field
cages until they multiply sufficiently to hold their own.
F. Predatory arthropods or insect pathogens may
decimate and prevent the establishment of a newly-colonized
species.
e.g., The scorpion fly, Harpobittacus nigriceps, caused very high
mortality among larvae of the cinnabar moth
at colonization sites
and thus prevented establishment of this moth for the biological control of the
toxic weed,
tansy ragwort, in Australia. This was despite a mass rearing program
where 500,000 larvae were liberated
during the 1960-61
period.
G. Other factors of lesser concern:
1. unsuitability of certain host plants as
shelter for the colonized natural enemy.
2. host species may be physiologically unsuited
to parasitoid development.
3. a highly developed dispersal habit may retard
or prevent establishment.
V. Release Numbers
A. There are no reliable means of estimating
the minimum number of individuals necessary to establish imported
natural enemies.
B. Theoretically, this number may be as few as
a single mated female, yet sometimes tens of thousands were required.
VI. Excessive difficulty in
the initial establishment of a species indicates its lack of
adaptability to the new environment and
its limited promise as a biological control agent
in the area released.
A. Clausen (1951) after careful analyses of the
most successful cases of biological control achieved to the 1950's,
formulated what has become known as his three-generation, three-year theory.
1. an effective parasitoid or predator can be
expected to show evidence of control at
the point of release within
a period of three host generations or
three years' time.
2. a fully effective parasitoid or predator is
always easily and quickly established.
3. failure of a parasitoid or predator to
become established easily and quickly indicates that it will not be
fully effective after its establishment
is achieved.
4. colonization of an imported parasitoid may
well be discontinued after three years if there is no evidence of
establishment.
5. Clausen admitted that establishment might be
attained by further effort, but that a species that requires such
efforts will be of little real value,
and its mere establishment will not compensate for the additional costs and
labor
involved.
6. Clausen's views have been criticized for
neglecting those importations that result in a partial degree of biological
control, which at least reduces the
number and amounts of chemical treatments required.
VII. After establishment in one locality, natural spread
of a natural enemy species is usually aided by distributing field-
collected adults or parasitized hosts to
new locations.
VIII. Recovery
A. Field observations of the natural enemy
(especially in the case of predators.).
B. Parasitoid rearing from field-collected
hosts.
C. Dissection of parasitized, field-collected
hosts.
D. Sweep-net or suction machine sampling for
adult parasitoids and predators.
IX.
Prediction of Success
A. The colonization of entomophagous and
phytophagous natural enemies largely remains a matter of empirical
trial and error.
B. Data from past efforts suggest that the
probability of a newly colonized entomophagous species becoming
permanently established averages one in three.
C. Predictive data gathered at the point of
origin of the natural enemy may require a decade or labor intensive,
costly effort. Most projects do not have adequate funds to support such studies,
nor may control be delayed
for that long a time. Nevertheless, in certain cases, such as in
the biological control of weeds and medically
important arthropods, lengthy pre-introduction
studies are required to preclude the introduction of harmful species.
X. Evaluation
A. There is continued effort being made in
biological control to devise techniques for quantitatively evaluating
the effect of natural enemies on pest populations
in the field.
B. Evidence for the occurrence of biological
control is of three major types:
1. data showing a reduction in the pest
population density invariably followed the introduction of the natural
enemy, time after time, in place after
place.
2. data showing that following the
establishment of a natural enemy, the pest population remained at a much
lower average density than before the
establishment of the natural enemy.
3. data showing a decidedly higher survivorship
of the pest when it was protected from attack by the natural
enemy.
C. Some newer approaches that have resulted in
variable success are:
1. attempts to correlated host and natural
enemy population dynamics.
2. analyses of life table data.
D. Experimental Methods
1. mechanical exclusion.
2. chemical exclusion.
3. trap-method.
4. hand removal exclusion method.
5. biological check method (= use of ants to
interfere with natural enemies).
6. naturally-occurring exclusion.
REFERENCES:
Gonzalez,
D., W. White, C. Pickett, V. Cervenka, M. Moratorio & L. T. Wilson. 1988.
Biological control of variegated leafhopper
in grape IPM program. Calif. Agric. 42: 23-5.
Legner,
E. F. & H. W. Brydon. 1966.
Suppression of dung inhabiting fly populations by pupal parasites. Ann. Entomol. Soc.
Amer. 59(4): 638-651.
Legner,
E. F. & R. A. Medved. 1979. Influence of parasitic Hymenoptera on the
regulation of pink bollworm, Pectinophora
gossypiella,
on cotton in the lower Colorado
Desert. Environ. Entomol. 8(5): 922-930.
Legner,
E. F. & A. Silveira-Guido.
1983. Establishment of Goniozus emigratus and Goniozus
legneri [Hym: Bethylidae] on
navel
orangeworm, Amyelois transitella
[Lep: Phycitidae] in California and biological control potential. Entomophaga 28(2): 97-106.
Legner,
E. F., W. D. McKeen & R. W. Warkentin.
1990. Inoculation of three
pteromalid wasp species (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae)
increases parasitism and mortality of Musca domestica L. pupae in poultry manure. Bull. Soc. Vector Ecol. 15(2): 149-155