Significant plant pests such as fruit flies that travel with fresh produce between countries as eggs or larvae pose a great economic threat to the agriculture and fruit industry worldwide. Time‐limited and expensive quarantine decisions require accurate identification of such pests. Immature stages are often impossible to identify, making them a serious concern for biosecurity agencies. Use of COI barcoding PCR, often the only molecular identification resource, is time‐consuming. We assess the suitability of the COI barcoding region for real‐time PCR assays to identify four pest fruit fly species (Family: Tephritidae), in a diagnostic framework. These species, namely Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata), Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni), African invader fly (Bactrocera invadens) and Island fly (Dirioxa pornia) each provide a different set of genetic species delimitation problems. We discuss the benefits and limitations of using a single‐gene TaqMan™ real‐time approach for such species. Our results indicate that COI‐based TaqMan™ real‐time PCR assays, in particular for genetically distinct species, provide an accurate, sensitive and rapid diagnostic tool.
Background: A large population of Paropsisterna beata (eucalyptus leaf beetle) was detected on Eucalyptus nitens (H. Deane & Maiden) Maiden (Myrtaceae) at Whitemans Valley, a suburb east of Upper Hutt, Wellington, in 2012. The suburb is a semi-rural residential area with a large number of eucalypt, planted for amenity, shelterbelt and firewood. Surveillance to delimit spread showed that the beetle population was confined to about 0.7 ha consisting of about 40 eucalypts. The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) initiated a response to eradicate the beetle population. Findings: Aerial applications of Dominex EC 100 (alpha-cypermethrin) and ground applications of Talstar (bifenthrin) respectively over a 15-month period targeted the adults and larvae in the foliage and the pre-pupae, larvae and emerging adults in the leaf litter. Removal of overwintering habitat by stripping loose bark from host trees further reduced the beetle population. Following these treatments, the beetle has not been detected through a series of surveys using light traps, bark inspection, sticky tapes, visual inspection from the ground, climbing and felling host trees for inspection for 2 years since the last detection of two adults on neighbouring trees. Conclusions: The P. beata population has been successfully eradicated using a combination of aerial and groundbased application of insecticides. The use of precision aerial applications (spot-spraying) has provided an additional tool for incursion response.
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