Selection of non-target species for host specificity testing of entomophagous biological control agents.

Abstract

We present comprehensive recommendations for setting up test species lists for arthropod biological control programs that are scientifically based and ensure that all aspects of potential impacts are considered. It is proposed that a set of categories, including ecological similarities, phylogenetic/taxonomic affinities, and safeguard considerations are applied to ecological host range information to develop an initial test list. This list is then filtered to reduce the number of species to be tested by eliminating those with different spatial, temporal and morphological attributes and those species that are not readily obtained, thus unlikely to yield scientifically relevant data. The reduced test list is used for the actual testing but can (and should) be revised if new information obtained indicates that additional or more appropriate species should be included.