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Host Specificity of a Phytophagous Insect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2017

James K. Holloway*
Affiliation:
Entomology Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, Albany, California
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Abstract

The use of insects in the biological control of weeds necessitates that these insects have very restricted host ranges. Specialized insects boring in stems or living in seed pods have adaptations which obligate them to their host plant. However, the leaf-feeding beetle, Chrysolina quadrigemina Suffrian, imported for the control of St. Johnswort (Klamath weed) (Hypericum perforatum L.) through its feeding habits, tropistic responses and synchronization of its life history to the growth phases of the plant has shown that it is restricted to its preferred host plant.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1964 Weed Science Society of America 

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References

Literature Cited

1. Holloway, James K. 1948. Biological control of Klamath weed—Progress report. J. Econ. Entomol. 441(1):56.Google Scholar
2. Imms, A. D. 1929. Remarks on the problem of the biological control of noxious weeds. Transactions 4th Int. Cong. of Entomol., Ithaca, New York, August 1928, 2:1017.Google Scholar
3. Tillyard, R. J. 1929. The biological control of noxious weeds. Transactions 4th Int. Cong. of Entomol., Ithaca, New York, August 1928, 2:49.Google Scholar
4. Wilson, Frank. 1943. The entomological control of St. Johnswort (Hypericum perforatum L.) with particular reference to the insect enemies in southern France. Australian Council Sci. and Indus. Res. Bull. 169.Google Scholar