RESUMEN

Criocerine leaf beetles found in Nepal feeding on Dioscorea bulbifera (L.), an invasive weed of Asian origin, were identified as Lilioceris cheni Gressitt and Kimoto based on a synopsis of the Oriental Lilioceris species and review of the Lilioceris impressa species group. All the continental, Oriental species included in the group are diagnosed and illustrated, and a key for their identification is provided. Species status of Lilioceris thibetana Pic, 1916 is resurrected. The following new synonyms are proposed: Lilioceris coomani (Pic, 1928) = Lilioceris egena (Weise, 1922), and Lilioceris subcostata (Pic, 1921a), Lilioceris laticornis (Gressit, 1942), Lilioceris inflaticornis Gressit & Kimoto, 1961, and Lilioceris maai Gressit & Kimoto, 1961 = Lilioceris impressa (Fabricius, 1787). Lectotypes of the following species are designated: Lilioceris coomani Pic, 1928; Lilioceris impressa (Fabricius, 1787); Lilioceris laosensis (Pic, 1916); Lilioceris malabarica (Jacoby, 1904); Lilioceris ruficornis (Pic, 1921b); Lilioceris subcostata (Pic, 1921a); Lilioceris thibetana (Pic, 1916); and Lilioceris unicolor (Hope, 1831).

RESUMEN

Invasion of south Florida wetlands by the Australian paperbark tree, Melaleuca quinquenervia (Cav.) S.T. Blake (melaleuca), has caused adverse economic and environmental impacts. The tree's biological attributes and favorable ambient biophysical conditions combine to complicate efforts to restore and maintain south Florida ecosystems. Management requires an integrated strategy that deploys multiple biological control agents to forestall reinvasion and to supplement other control methods, thereby lessening recruitment and regeneration after removal of existing trees. This biological control program began during 1997 when an Australian weevil, Oxyops vitiosa (Pascoe), was released. A second Australian insect, the melaleuca psyllid (Boreioglycaspis melaleucae Moore), first introduced during 2002, has also widely established. After inoculation of the psyllid in a field study, only 40% of seedlings survived herbivory treatments compared with 95% survival in controls. The resultant defoliation also reduced growth of the surviving seedlings. A weevil-induced decline at a site comprised mainly of coppicing stumps had slowed after a 70% reduction. Psyllids colonized the site, and 37% of the remaining coppices succumbed within 10 mo. The realized ecological host range of B. melaleucae was restricted to M. quinquenervia; 18 other nontarget plant species predicted to be suboptimal or nonhosts during laboratory host range testing were unaffected when interspersed with psyllid-infested melaleuca trees in a common garden study. Evaluations are ongoing, but B. melaleucae is clearly reducing seedling recruitment and stump regrowth without adversely impacting other plant species. Manifestation of impacts on mature trees will require more time, but initial indications suggest that the psyllid will be an effective supplement to the weevil.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Fergusobia nematodes (Tylenchida: Fergusobiinae) and Fergusonina flies (Diptera: Fergusoninidae) are putative mutualists that develop together in galls formed in meristematic tissues of many species of the plant family Myrtaceae in Australasia. Fergusobia nematodes were sampled from a variety of myrtaceous hosts and gall types from Australia and one location in New Zealand between 1999 and 2006. Evolutionary relationships of these isolates were inferred from phylogenetic analyses of the DNA sequences of the nuclear ribosomal DNA near-full length small subunit (up to 1689bp for 21 isolates), partial large subunit D2/D3 domain (up to 889bp for 87 isolates), partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (618 bp for 82 isolates), and combined D2/D3 and mtCOI (up to 1497bp for 66 isolates). The SSU data supported a monophyletic Fergusobia genus within a paraphyletic Howardula. A clade of Drosophila-associated Howardula, including Howardula aoronymphium, was the closest sequenced sister group. Phylogenetic analysis of sequences from D2/D3 and mtCOI, separately and combined, revealed many monophyletic clades within Fergusobia. The relationships inferred by D2/D3 and mtCOI were congruent with some exceptions. Well-supported clades were generally consistent with host plant species and gall type. However, phylogenetic analysis suggested host switching or putative hybridization events in many groups, except the lineage of shoot bud gallers on the broad-leaved Melaleuca species complex.

Asunto(s)