Project Number: 6629-22000-009-18
Project Type: Reimbursable

Start Date: Sep 08, 2006
End Date: Sep 30, 2008

Objective:
Discover natural enemies of the lobate lac scale in the insects native South Asia that have potential as biological control agents of the pest insect in Florida.

Approach:
Surveys will be made in South Asia (India and possibly Sri Lanka) to discover the natural enemies of the lobate lac scale. Surveys will initially focus on recorded locations and host plants and then will expand as is appropriate to examine unexamined areas and undocumented host plants. Emergence holes in lobate lac scales and rearing of this insect will be used to detect natural enemy presence. Shipments of lobate lac scale colonies on cut host plant branches will be sent directly to Florida biological control quarantine laboratories in either Gainesville or Ft. Lauderdale for determination of host ranges.