Agricultural crops such as cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) are vulnerable to a plethora of pests and diseases. Endophytic fungi are increasingly used in biological control against these pests and diseases as ...

The potato psyllid Bactericera cockerelli (Hemiptera: Triozidae) has recently emerged as a serious pest of potatoes and other solanaceous crops. It causes direct feeding damage and also vectors Candidatus Liberibacter ...

Invertebrates make up over 95% of animal biodiversity on Earth and contribute to multiple ecosystem services (ES) in natural and human-dominated systems. One such service, biological control (BC) of herbivorous pests, is ...

The majority of herbivorous insects are specialized feeders restricted to a plant family, genus, or species. The evolution of specialized insect–plant interactions is generally considered to be a result of trade-offs in ...

To protect productive grasslands from pests and diseases, effective pre- and at-border planning and interventions are necessary. Biosecurity failure inevitably requires expensive and difficult eradication, or long-term and ...

The number of non-native plant species established outside of cultivation in the New Zealand archipelago is higher than for any other islands worldwide. Faced with this scale of plant invasions, there has been considerable ...

Soil-borne plant pathogens such as Rhizoctonia solani (Kuhn), Pythium ultimum (Trow) and Sclerotinia trifoliorum (Eriks) can reduce grass and forage legume establishment. The potential for biocontrol of these pathogens by ...

Soil sampling in a cereal crop near Southbridge, Canterbury, revealed dipteran larvae attacking Costelytra zealandica (White) pupae. Approximately 50% of the pupae had larvae associated with them. DNA sequencing analysis ...

Modified, agricultural landscapes are susceptible to damage by insect pests. Biological control of pests is typically successful once a control agent has established, but this depends on the agent’s capacity to co-evolve ...