4d.Progress report.
This report serves to document research conducted under a specific cooperative agreement between ARS and the Bureau of Land Management, Billings, Montana. Additional details of research can be found in the report for the parent CRIS 4012-22000-020-00D, Discovery and Initial Development of Classical Biological Control Agents for Invasive Eurasian Weeds Affecting Agricultural and Natural Areas. Progress made on discovery and evaluation of biological control agents of the rangeland weed, dyer’s woad. Results of continued host specificity testing of the seed feeding weevil, Ceutorhyunchus peyerimhoffi ,showed that no crops or ornamentals were attacked or chosen as host plants. A leaf and bud feeding beetle, Psylliodes isatidis, was discovered and studied as a new agent against dyer’s woad. Results of preliminary host range testing were positive, with no feeding, oviposition, or development occurring on crops and ornamentals included in tests. For the Canada thistle project, adults of Tricophysa cirsii were collected in Inner Mongolia, China, to continue host range testing at EBCL Rome substation. No damage or larval development was observed from host specificity tests. Biological studies were also conducted in the laboratory at EBCL Rome as well as at the ARS Sino-American Biological Control Laboratory, Beijing, China. This insect agent continue to be host specific. Apparently new species of both Psylliodes and Cerambicid (Coleoptera) were discovered in China while surveying Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Provinces. Preliminary laboratory tests suggested that both insects have great potential to control Canada thistle. The expectation is that newly discovered insects exist in Eurasian areas of origin that can control both dyar’s woad and Canada thistle in North America.