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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fort Lauderdale, Florida » Invasive Plant Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #277504
Title: Potential classical biological control of invasive Himalayan yellow raspberry, Rubus ellipticus

Author
item WU, K - Yunnan University
item Center, Ted
item YANG, C - Sichuan University
item ZHANG, J - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item DING, J - Chinese Academy Of Sciences

Submitted to: Pacific Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/12/2012
Publication Date: 1/1/2013
Citation: Wu, K., Center, T.D., Yang, C., Zhang, J., Ding, J. 2013. Potential classical biological control of invasive Himalayan yellow raspberry, Rubus ellipticus. Pacific Science. 67(1):59-80. https://doi.org/10.2984/67.1.5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2984/67.1.5

Interpretive Summary: The Himalayan yellow raspberry has been introduced to many parts of the world where it has become a terrible weed and control using herbicides are not always effective. This has aroused interest in finding environmentally friendly ways to control it so biological control using natural enemies is being investigated. The best place to look for natural enemies that specialze in exploiting that weed, and only that weed, is in the plant’s native range, where the target weed and plant feeders have coexisted for millions of years. Faunal studies were therefore done in China to enumerate plant-feeding insects and plant pathogens that use the weed as a host. Many such species were found including moths, beetles, and sawflies. In addition, obscure Chinese literature was searched along with other writings to obtain as comprehensive a list of associated species as possible.

Technical Abstract: Rubus ellipticus is one of the world's worst invasive alien species. It is a serious problem in Hawaii and Queensland and has naturalized in many other countries. Biological control is being considered as a means to suppress it by introducing natural enemies from Asia, its native region. In this paper, we report 62 herbivorous insect species in 22 families that were collected on R. ellipticus during 2006-2010 in China: Two leaf-rolling moth species, Epinotia ustulanan and Epiblema tetragonana, two warty beetle species, Chlamisus setosus and Chlamisus sp., two flea beetle species in the genus Chaetoenema, four unidentified weevil species, five unidentified Buprestids, one pyralid species and one sawfly species were considered important. We also report the results of preliminary host range determinations on some of them. In addition, we summarize the literature on natural enemies associated with Rubus species in Asia, which encompasses 50 arthropod species in 14 families and 63 fungi species in 18 orders.