Reliable testing of the suitability of various flower species for natural enemies is an important step in developing a conservation biological control programme. Laboratory tests showed that the suitability of nine candidate ...

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 ...

This research topic reports new findings and concepts on grassland invertebrate interactions in semi-natural and improved grasslands with emphasis on the effects of climate change, invasive species, and sustainable control ...

Pseudo-absence selection for spatial distribution models (SDMs) is the subject of ongoing investigation. Numerous techniques continue to be developed, and reports of their effectiveness vary. Because the quality of presence ...

Trichoderma spp. from New Zealand soils were evaluated (in greenhouse experiments and one field trial) for Rhizoctonia disease suppression and plant growth promotion of potato plants. Trichoderma virens LU549, T. atroviride ...

Insect pheromones have also been developed and successfully used in a number of New Zealand horticultural crops for monitoring or direct control strategies Synthetic pheromones have been used in NZ for delimiting the Asian ...

Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. (Californian, Canada, or creeping thistle) is an exotic perennial herb indigenous to Eurasia that successfully established in New Zealand (NZ) approximately 130 years ago. Presently, C. arvense ...

We studied the genus- and species-specialist monophagous herbivorous insects of Senecio (Asteraceae) in Auckland, New Zealand. With the exception of the widespread S. hispidulus, the eight native Senecio species in mainland ...

The study aimed to select an insect species with the greatest potential to vector F. tumidum spores for biological control of gorse.

There is an increasing need in New Zealand for the development of new solutions and improvement of currently available biological control agents of pasture pests. In the last two decades, the entomopathogen Yersinia ...