1USDA/ARS Invasive Plant Research Lab, 3225 College Ave, Ft Lauderdale, FL 33314, USA, 2Biological Control Research and Containment Laboratory ...
SPECIAL ISSUE – IMPROVING PEST CONTROL: MASS REARING AND FIELD PERFORMANCE
DOI: 10.1111/eea.12506
Quarantine host range testing of Pseudophilothrips ichini, a potential biological control agent of Brazilian peppertree, Schinus terebinthifolia, in North America and Hawaii Gregory S. Wheeler1*, Veronica Manrique2, William A. Overholt2, Fernando McKay3 & Kirsten Dyer1 1 USDA/ARS Invasive Plant Research Lab, 3225 College Ave, Ft Lauderdale, FL 33314, USA, 2Biological Control Research and Containment Laboratory, University of Florida, 2199 South Rock Road, Ft Pierce, FL 34945, USA, and 3FuEDEI, USDA/ARS/SABCL, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Accepted: 2 May 2016
Key words: biological control of weeds, Anacardiaceae, Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripidae, host range tests, thrips
Abstract
Brazilian peppertree, Schinus terebinthifolia Raddi (Anacardiaceae), is an invasive weed of natural and agricultural areas of Florida, Hawaii, and Texas (USA). Biological control presents an environmentally safe and cost-effective control method for invasive populations of this weed. Though many potential agents have been tested for specificity, nearly all have been rejected due to a broad host range. However, one species, a thrips Pseudophilothrips ichini (Hood) (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae), shows promise from field observations and quarantine host range tests. A series of no-choice, choice, and multiple-generation tests was conducted on 127 plant taxa (including five mango and four pistachio varieties) from 45 families and 33 orders. In no-choice starvation tests, the thrips fed and produced offspring on the target weed (124 F1 adults per plant), whereas no or few (
