Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER Biological Control BIOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF DALMATIAN AND Y ELLOW T OADFLAX LINDA M. WILSON, SHARLENE E. SING, GARY L. PIPER, RICHARD W. H ANSEN, ROSEMARIE DE CLERCK-FLOATE, DANIEL K. MACKINNON, AND CAROL BELL RANDALL Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team—Morgantown FHTET-2005-13 U.S. Department Forest September 2005 of Agriculture Service he Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team (FHTET) was created in 1995 Tby the Deputy Chief for State and Private Forestry, USDA, Forest Service, to develop and deliver technologies to protect and improve the health of American forests. This book was published by FHTET as part of the technology transfer series. http://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/technology/ Cover photos: Toadflax (UGA1416053)—Linda Wilson, Beetles (UGA14160033-top, UGA1416054-bottom)—Bob Richard All photographs in this publication can be accessed and viewed on-line at www.forestryimages.org, sponsored by the University of Georgia. You will find reference codes (UGA000000) in the captions for each figure in this publication. To access them, point your browser at http://www.forestryimages.org, and enter the reference code at the search prompt. How to cite this publication: Wilson, L. M., S. E. Sing, G. L. Piper, R. W. Hansen, R. De Clerck- Floate, D. K. MacKinnon, and C. Randall. 2005. Biology and Biological Control of Dalmatian and Yellow Toadflax. USDA Forest Service, FHTET-05-13. 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Biology and Biological Control of Dalmatian and Yellow Toadflax LINDA M. WILSON1, SHARLENE E. SING2, GARY L. PIPER3, RICHARD W. H ANSEN4, ROSEMARIE DE CLERCK-FLOATE5, DANIEL K. MACKINNON6, AND CAROL BELL RANDALL7 In cooperation with Susan Turner (British Columbia Ministry of Forests), Robert Nowierski (USDA-CSREES), André Gassmann (CABI Bioscience), Eric Coombs (Oregon Department of Agriculture), and Ruth Hufbauer (Colorado State University) 1 Department of Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow 2 USDA USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station, RM-4151, Bozeman, MT 3 Department of Entomology, Washington State University, Pullman 4 USDA-APHIS-PPQ, Fort Collins, CO 5 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge, Alberta 6 Department of Bioagricultural Sci. and Pest Mgmt., Colorado State University, Fort Collins 7 USDA Idaho Panhandle National Forest, Coeur d’Alene, ID For additional copies of this publication, contact: Linda Wilson Richard Reardon University of Idaho FHTET, USDA Forest Service Moscow Morgantown Idaho West Virginia (208) 885-9489 (304) 285-1566 [email protected] [email protected] _______________________________ BIOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF DALMATIAN AND Y ELLOW T OADFLAX Contents INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 Overview ......................................................................................................................... 1 Biological Control of Weeds.............................................................................................. 4 About This Manual ........................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 1. GETTING TO KNOW THE TOADFLAXES ........................................................ 9 Dalmatian Toadflax ......................................................................................................... 10 Yellow Toadflax .............................................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER 2. BIOLOGY OF TOADFLAX BIOCONTROL AGENTS .........................................20 Basic Insect Biology........................................................................................................ 20 Toadflax Biocontrol Insects ............................................................................................. 21 Brachypterolus pulicarius L. ...................................................................................... 25 Calophasia lunula (Hufnagel) .................................................................................... 28 Eteobalea intermediella Riedl. ................................................................................... 31 Eteobalea serratella Treitschke ................................................................................... 31 Mecinus janthinus Germar ........................................................................................ 35 Rhinusa antirrhini (Paykull) ........................................................................................ 40 Rhinusa neta (Germar) .............................................................................................. 40 Rhinusa linariae (Panzer) ........................................................................................... 44 Summary of Chapter 2 .................................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER 3. DEVELOPING, IMPLEMENTING, AND MANAGING A TOADFLAX BIOLOGICAL CONTROL PROGRAM........................................................................................51 1. Planning a Toadflax Biocontrol Program ..................................................................... 52 2. Deciding What Biocontrol Agent(s) to Release ............................................................ 53 3. Selecting Release Sites ............................................................................................... 54 4. Obtaining Toadflax Biocontrol Agents ......................................................................... 57 4.1 Collecting toadflax biocontrol agents ................................................................... 58 4.2 Purchasing toadflax biocontrol agents .................................................................. 64 5. Handling and Releasing Toadflax Biocontrol Agents.................................................... 65 5.1 Handling toadflax biocontrol agents .................................................................... 65 5.2 Shipping toadflax biocontrol agents ..................................................................... 65 5.3 Releasing toadflax biocontrol agents .................................................................... 67 6. Monitoring ................................................................................................................ 71 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 71 6.1 Determining your monitoring objectives .............................................................. 71 6.2 Planning your monitoring activities ...................................................................... 72 6.3 Monitoring methods ........................................................................................... 75 iii BIOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF DALMATIAN AND Y ELLOW T OADFLAX ________________________________ SELECTED REFERENCES ..........................................................................................87 Toadflax Biology and Ecology ......................................................................................... 87 Classification .................................................................................................................. 88 Toadflax Control ............................................................................................................. 89 Biological Control – General........................................................................................... 89 Brachypterolus pulicarius ............................................................................................... 90 Calophasia lunula .......................................................................................................... 91 Eteobalea intermediella and E. serratella ......................................................................... 91 Mecinus janthinus .......................................................................................................... 92 Rhinusa antirrhini, R. neta, and R. linariae ....................................................................... 93 Toadflax Internet Resources ............................................................................................ 93 GLOSSARY .........................................................................................................96 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .........................................................................................101 SOURCES OF FIGURES .........................................................................................101