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Grasses as appropriate targets in weed biocontrol: is the common reed, Phragmites australis, an anomaly?

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Abstract

Despite their importance as invasive species, there has been a hesitation to target grasses in classical biocontrol. This historic bias appears to be changing with multiple active research and release programs. Similarly, biocontrol workers appear to avoid targeting species with native congeners. These biases appear inappropriate as the ecological and entomological literature provide abundant evidence for sub-genus specificity for many herbivores, including those attacking grasses. The biocontrol program targeting Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud (Poaceae) provides an informative example with endemic subspecies in North America and many sub-genus specific herbivores, including potential European control agents. Grasses and target weeds with congeneric native species require rigorous host range testing, similar to all other targets in current weed biological control programs. Furthermore, it appears prudent to ask petition reviewers and regulatory agencies to abandon their focus on results of no-choice studies and to distinguish between trivial feeding and demographic impacts.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate support and assistance we have received over the past 20 years from wetland and wildlife managers in the USA and Canada and technical support from many undergraduate students. Major funding for this work was provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, New York State Department of Transportation, Rhode Island and New York Sea Grant programs, and Agricultural Experiment Stations of Cornell and University of Rhode Island. Patrick Häfliger and Hariet Hinz were supported by CABI with core financial support from its member countries (see http://www.cabi.org/about-cabi/who-we-work-with/key-donors/). We thank Rachel Winston for background info on biocontrol and Wade Simmons for help in preparing the figures. We appreciate helpful comments by reviewers and editors that improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Sciences and Entomology, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA

    Richard A. Casagrande & Lisa Tewksbury

  2. CABI, 2800, Delémont, Switzerland

    Patrick Häfliger & Hariet L. Hinz

  3. Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Bernd Blossey

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  1. Richard A. Casagrande
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  2. Patrick Häfliger
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  3. Hariet L. Hinz
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  4. Lisa Tewksbury
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  5. Bernd Blossey
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Correspondence to Bernd Blossey.

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Handling Editors: Mark Schwarzländer, Cliff Moran and S. Raghu

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Casagrande, R.A., Häfliger, P., Hinz, H.L. et al. Grasses as appropriate targets in weed biocontrol: is the common reed, Phragmites australis, an anomaly?. BioControl 63, 391–403 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-018-9871-y

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