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Chaetorellia australis (Diptera: Tephritidae) for biological control of yellow starthistle, Centaurea solstitialis (Compositae), in the western USA: establishment and seed destruction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

C.E. Turner ,
G.L. Piper  and
E.M. Coombs
C.E. Turner*
Affiliation:
US Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service, Western Regional Research Center, Albany, California, USA
G.L. Piper*
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA
E.M. Coombs*
Affiliation:
Oregon Department of Agriculture, Salem, Oregon, USA
*
C.E. Turner, US Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service, Western Regional Research Center, Albany, California 94710, USA.
C.E. Turner, US Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service, Western Regional Research Center, Albany, California 94710, USA.
C.E. Turner, US Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service, Western Regional Research Center, Albany, California 94710, USA.
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Abstract

Yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis Linnaeus) (Compositae), native to Eurasia and the Mediterranean Basin, is a spiny and poisonous, naturalized, invasive weed of grasslands and other environments in the western USA. Chaetorellia australis Hering is a trivoltine natural enemy of yellow starthistle whose larvae feed on developing seeds within capitula. Following host-specificity studies in Greece and the USA, C. australis was first introduced from Greece into the USA in 1988 for the biological control of yellow starthistle. Field samples of yellow starthistle capitula revealed that 10.3% (four years after initial release) and 18.0% (three years after initial release) of capitula at Colfax, Washington, and Merlin, Oregon, respectively, were infested by ≥ 1 C. australis (mature larvae or empty puparia). Both sites also contained naturalized, weedy populations of, Centaurea cyanus, a second host-plant of Chaetorellia australis. The fly was also recovered from Centaurea cyanus capitula two years after its release at Kendrick, Idaho. The potential importance of the presence of C. cyanus for Chaetorellia australis and biological control of yellow starthistle is discussed. At the Colfax site, all infested yellow starthistle capitula contained 1 C. australis, while at the Merlin site 28.8% of infested capitula contained > 1 C. australis, with a mean of 1.36 C. australis per infested capitulum. A preliminary seed destruction impact study at the Merlin site showed that there was a 83.4% reduction in seeds per capitulum infested by ≥ 1 C. australis, and the presence of > 1 C. australis resulted in a 95.4% reduction in seeds per infested capitulum.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 86 , Issue 2 , April 1996 , pp. 177 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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