Indigenous Pest Research Articles

A NOTE ON PELECINUS POLYTURATOR (HYMENOPTERA: PELECINIDAE), A PARASITE OF PHYLLOPHAGA ANXIA (COLEOPTERA: SCARABAEIDAE)

The common June beetle, Phyllophaga anxia (LeConte), is an indigenous pest of agricultural crops in North America (Hammond 1948; Ritcher 1949). A bionomic study and survey for natural enemies of P. anxia was conducted in southern Quebec from 1975 to 1977. Pasture soils were searched for immature stages of P. anxia, and any natural enemies found in situ were collected. A prepupa and pupae of Pelecinus polyturator (Drury) were found in the pasture on several occasions. Previously, P. polyturator had been reported as a parasite of grubs of Phyllophaga spp. (Davis 1919; Petch and Hammond 1925, 1926; Brues 1928; Hammond 1944), and its distribution ranges from Canada to Argentina (Masner 1979).

The Potential of Autocides and Microorganisms as Ecologically Acceptable Agents for the Regulation of Spruce Budworm Infestations

AbstractThe spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) is the most economically important indigenous pest in eastern North America. In order to protect valuable timber the budworm population must be restricted to endemic levels. To achieve this, and simultaneously attempt to improve environmental quality is a major objective of much research into the development of new insect control methods.This review presents an encapsulated report of researches into the use of pheromones and hormones (autocides), and viruses, fungi, bacteria and microsporida (microorganisms) as possible control agents. Such agents would be more selective than conventional insecticides. Several of the control methods discussed in this report are almost operational, and while it is evident that none of them can completely replace chemical insecticides, field tests indicate that they have a potential in budworm control. The results also indicate the urgent need for testing the integrated use of the autocides and microorganisms, and the integrated application of these newer control agents with conventional chemical insecticides.

NOTES ON THE BIOLOGY OF THE ENGELMANN SPRUCE WEEVIL, PISSODES ENGELMANNI (CURCULIONIDAE: COLEOPTERA) AND ITS PARASITES AND PREDATORS

AbstractThe Engelmann spruce weevil, Pissodes engelmanni Hopkins, is an indigenous pest of spruce regeneration in western Canada and the adjacent United States. It is univoltine, overwintering as an adult in the duff beneath the host trees. Eggs are deposited in feeding punctures in the terminal leader. Larvae feed downward in the phloem causing two or more years loss of height growth. Deformities incurred by three or more consecutive years of weevil attacks produce a tree of no commercial value. The incidence of weevilling is most numerous in open grown, even-aged, young stands. Of 14 insect parasites and one predator, Dolichomitus terebrans nubilipennis (Viereck), Eurytoma pissodis Girault and Lonchaea corticis Taylor are considered principal natural control agents.

The Approach to Biological Control in Forest Entomology

The term “biological control” is sometimes used very broadly to cover all methods of encouraging the action of biotic factors. For the purposes of this discussion I will use it to refer solely to the introduction of parasites, predators, or microorganisms. I will also confine my remarks to the control of introduced pests. That is the purpose for which it has most promise and has been chiefly used. In my experience the most pressing forest insect problems of the Maritime Provinces–with the notable exception of the spruce budworm–have been with foreign species of European origin. It is logical to assess the value of biological control against exotic species before turning attention to its possibilities against indigenous pests (see Rawlings, 1958).

Grants for Scientific Research in Belgium

THE annual report for 1946 of the Institute for the Encouragement of Scientific Research in Industry and Agriculture, Exercice, Brussels, details the twenty-nine projects for which subsidies were granted in 1946. The largest of these, 2,800,000 francs, was to the Electrical Construction Works of Charleroi, for research on electronic tubes and their applications; a grant of 2,458,000 francs was made to the Foundation for Potato Research for investigations on the breeding of varieties resistant to virus disease, and one of 2,000,000 francs to the Belgian Institute for High Pressures for static and dynamic researches in the field of high pressures, the development of methods for determining the quality of powders and explosives and the study of the metrology of high pressures. A further grant of 1,900,000 francs was made to the Electrical Construction Works of Charleroi for the continuation and extension of research on the mercury vapour arc, while the Belgian Institute for the Improvement of the Beetroot received 1,890,000 francs for continuing agronomic, chemical, biological and mechanical investigations on the improvement of the sugar-beet. To the Union of Belgian Artificial Textile Manufacturers, "Fabelta", 992,000 francs were granted for investigations on the determination of the properties of viscose filaments, and on the deformation of threads of regenerated cellulose. A grant of 891,000 francs was made to the National Research Centre for the Study of Animals Harmful or Useful to Agriculture, for the initiation of a study of the fauna, of means of controlling indigenous pests and nematode phyto-parasites, as well as of biological control of agricultural pests. The Colonial Centre for Documentation and Co-ordination of Chemical Research received 844,400 francs for research in medicinal plants and insecticides in the Belgian Congo, while the Belgian Society of Optics and Precision Instruments received 800,000 francs for scientific and technical research on the improvement of optical surfaces, the study of optical systems corresponding with a new range of instruments and on the introduction of rational methods of manufacture into optics. Smaller grants, including 263,000 francs to the Centre for Ecological and Phytosociological Research and 162,500 francs for research on penicillin, brought the grand total to 20,801,300 francs.

Australian Plants in India

IN NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 370, some remarks are made (with reference to Mr. Wallace's observations in “Island Life”) regarding the apparent inability of Australian plants to become naturalised in the northern hemisphere. It may therefore be interesting to you and to Mr. Wallace to learn of some striking exceptions to this rule in the case of Australian plants which have been introduced on the Nilgiri plateau in Southern India, at elevations ranging from about 5500 to nearly 8000 feet above sea-level. Acacias and Eucalypti in particular have found a congenial home in this region, and visitors from Australia who have seen them say that they appear even more vigorous than in their native soil. Hundreds of acres of Eucalyptus Globulus and of Acacia melanoxylon and A. dealbata have been planted by Government as firewood reserves, and the trees have grown up splendidly. The only drawback to the success of the experiment has been that the Acacia melanoxylon has been greatly injured by Loranthaceous parasites. In fact this species will apparently in course of time be exterminated by these indigenous pests. Besides Eucalyptus Globulus the following species of the genus have also been introduced, and thrive well:—E. sideroxylon, E. obliqua, E. fissilis, E. rostrata, E. viminalis, E. amygdalina, and E. perfoliata. In addition to the two species of Acacia already mentioned, the following have also been added to the list of healthy growing exotics on the Nilgiris, viz. A. pycnantha, A. salicina, A. longifolia, A. decurrens, A. cultnformis, A. elata, and other, might also be enumerated. As regards other Australian plants on these hills we have Hakea, Banksia, Myoporum, Kunzea, Tristania, Pittosporum, Beaufortia, &c. In short there is a very considerable Australian flora flourishing on the “Blue Mountains” of Madras, and so extensively have the trees been planted out about the principal stations that they have given quite a new character to the scenery. Some of the acacias have a considerable resemblance in shape and colour to the Scotch fir, and this likeness has, to some visitors, added a fresh charm to the beauties of the scenery.