The stem-boring weevil Listronotus setosipennis (Hustache) is widespread and damaging to its host Parthenium hysterophorus L. in northern Argentina and southern Brazil. In detailed host-testing it was shown to have a restricted host-range and, despite some feeding and development on sunflower in tests, to be a safe biological control agent against P. hysterophorus. Field releases in Queensland, Australia took place from 1982 to 1986 and the weevil has established over several thousand hectares at numerous sites. Spread is however slow and the effect on the plant still negligible.
Larvae of a cerambycid borer, Plagiohammus spinipennis, have been reared from hatching to pupation on a meridic diet. Larvae developed faster, were larger, and showed higher larval survival and oviposition rates than those reared on the insects' normal host Lantana camara. A rearing technique using this artificial diet was adapted to large-scale propagation of this bio-control insect.
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