Abstract
Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae) is a weed of major importance in South Africa. It invades indigenous forests and veld, valuable commercial and agricultural forests, plantations and orchards, as well as river-catchment areas. Several natural enemies, including insect and pathogen species, have been released in South Africa, some of which established successfully. These do not exert sufficient control and additional natural enemies are required. Leptostales ignifera Warren (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), one of several new species being investigated as potential biocontrol agents, was collected in the subtropical parts of Florida, USA and Mexico. Host specificity trials indicated L. camara to be the preferred host plant of this quick-developing, voracious leaf-feeder, with some of the African indigenous Lippia species qualifying as very marginal hosts. The possible preference that L. ignifera might have for different South African naturalized L. camara varieties was studied during quarantine laboratory preference trials. Variety 029WP was the most suitable host for L. ignifera, although the other four tested varieties were able to support viable populations of the insect. Not taking other abiotic and biotic factors such as climate and predation into consideration, once released, L. ignifera should be able to establish on all five of the tested varieties in the field and contribute to the biological control of the complex of L. camara as a whole. Based on the above studies, permission has been granted for the release of L. ignifera in South Africa.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Rob Kluge for welcome comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. Several organizations provided financial support, including National Department of Agriculture, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa. The authors would like to thank Douglas C. Ferguson, a Research Entomologist at the USDA Systematic Entomology Laboratory, USA, for the identification of L. ignifera.
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Williams, H.E., Madire, L.G. Biology, host range and varietal preference of the leaf-feeding geometrid, Leptostales ignifera, a potential biocontrol agent for Lantana camara in South Africa, under laboratory conditions. BioControl 53, 957–969 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-007-9119-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-007-9119-8