______________________________________ Biological Control of Horse-Chestnut Leaf Miner in Europe THE HORSE-CHESTNUT LEAF MINER IN EUROPE – PROSPECTS AND CONSTRAINTS FOR BIOLOGICAL CONTROL Marc KENIS1, Rumen TOMOV2, Ales SVATOS3, Peter SCHLINSOG4, Carlos LOPEZ VAAMONDE5, Werner HEITLAND4, Giselher GRABENWEGER6, Sandrine GIRARDOZ1, Jona FREISE4,7, and Nikolaos AVTZIS8 1CABI Bioscience Switzerland Centre 2800 Delémont, Switzerland
[email protected] 2Faculty of Agronomy, University of Forestry 1756 Sofia, Bulgaria 3Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry 166 10, Prague 6, Czech Republic and MS Group, Max-Plank Institute for Chemical Ecology 07745 Jena, Germany 4Institute of Animal Ecology, TU Munich 85354 Freising, Germany. 77 5Institute of Zoology, London, NW1 4RY, United Kingdom 6University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Institute of Plant Protection 1190 Vienna, Austria / Official Bureau of Plant Protection Berlin 12347 Berlin, Germany 7State Service of Consumer Protection and Food Safety for Lower Saxony 26127 Oldenburg, Germany 8Technological Educational Institute of Kavala 66 100 Drama, Greece. ABSTRACT The horse-chestnut leaf miner, Cameraria ohridella Deschka and Dimic (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae), is a moth of unknown origin that was first observed in Macedonia in the late 1970s. Since then, it has spread over most of Europe, causing permanent outbreaks on the European horse-chestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum L. (Sapindales: Sapindaceae), a major ur- ban tree in Europe. The horse-chestnut is endemic to the Balkans where the few remaining Second International Symposium on Biological Control of Arthropods Kenis et al. ___________________________________________________________________________________ natural stands are also severely attacked, causing concern for the survival of this rare tree species. Classical biological control is considered as the only long-term control option, but shows two major constraints i.e.