Sirex woodwasp: a model for evolving management paradigms of invasive forest pests.
The Sirex woodwasp, Sirex noctilio, and its fungal mutualist, Amylostereum areolatum, together constitute one of the most damaging invasive pests of pine. Despite a century of research and well-established management programs, control remains unpredictable and spread continues to new areas. Variable success in managing this pest has been influenced by complex invasion patterns, the multilayered nature of biological interactions, the varying local ecologies, and microevolutionary population processes in both the biocontrol organisms and in the wasps. Recent research findings are challenging the historical perspectives on methods to manage the Sirex woodwasp, calling for management programs to incorporate the variable local dynamics affecting this pest complex. In this regard, the Sirex woodwasp provides a superb model to illustrate the need for a different approach to develop efficient and sustainable management tools to deal with the growing and global nature of pest invasions in forests and plantations.
Department of Genetics and Department of Zoology and Entomology, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa; email: bernard.slippers@fabi.up.ac.za , brett.hurley@fabi.up.ac.za , mike.wingfield@fabi.up.ac.za.
Bernard
B
Slippers
Brett P
BP
Hurley
Michael J
MJ
Wingfield
D000818:Animals; D001487:Basidiomycota / Q000502:physiology*; D020387:Food Chain; D016468:Forestry; D007300:Insect Control; D058865:Introduced Species; D028223:Pinus / Q000502:physiology; D013559:Symbiosis; D014431:Tylenchoidea / Q000502:physiology*; D014863:Wasps / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000502:physiology
biological control; invasion biology; microevolution; population ecology; symbiosis