Marina Oleiro

Fundación Para El Estudio De Especies Invasivas

The aquatic macrophyte Cabomba caroliniana A. Gray is a major invasive weed in Australia and several other countries. A classical biological control program was initiated in Australia in 2003 and native range explorations in Argentina that year led to the discovery of the aquatic weevil Hydrotimetes natans Kolbe feeding on C. caroliniana, making it...

A gall midge, Prodiplosis hirsuta Kolesik sp. nov., is described whose larvae feed on shoot tips of Jatropha gossypiifolia and Jatropha clavuligera in Paraguay and Bolivia. Morphology and the mitochondrial COI gene sequence of the new species are given. Field survey and preliminary no‐choice host specificity tests showed that the host plant range o...

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the boundaries of two sympatric species of Cuernavaca, C. inexacta and C. longula, to enable further ecological studies. Species in this genus are associated with water hyacinths in wetlands of Northeastern Argentina (Paraná-Paraguay waterway system) and the Peruvian Amazon. This work lists new host records...

Cuernavaca longula is a phloem‐feeding insect associated with the aquatic invasive weed Eichhornia crassipes, and is distributed in South America from Peru to Northern Argentina. It was studied and proposed as a potential biocontrol agent demonstrating its host affinity to water hyacinth through host specificity and damage studies. However, the com...

Classical biological control –or biocontrol- is a form of pest management comprising the release of specialized natural enemies (biocontrol agents) of an exotic pest. Classical biocontrol agents are scientifically selected from among the natural enemies the pest has in its native region. However biological control is firmly resisted in many countri...

1. Consumer–resource species interactions form complex, dynamic networks, which may exhibit structural heterogeneity at various scales. This study set out to address whether host–parasitoid food web size and topology vary across forest canopy strata, and to what extent foliar resources and species abundances account for vertical patterns in network...

Cardiospermum grandiflorum is an invasive creeper that was targeted for biological control in South Africa in 2003. To determine ecological host range of its natural enemies, surveys were conducted on C. grandiflorum and 11 other Sapindaceae at 40 sites in the weed's native range (Argentina). These surveys indicated that the seed-feeding weevil Cis...

The host range of Leurocephala schinusae Davis & Mc Kay (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) was studied to assess its suitability as a biological control agent of Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi (Anacardiaceae), a serious environmental weed in the USA and elsewhere in the world. The host range was determined in the laboratory with adult no-choice oviposit...

Recent surveys in southern Florida, USA, Brazil and Argentina, for biological control agents to assist in the control of the invasive Brazilian peppertree, have discovered several previously unknown species of plant mining Lepidoptera of the family Gracillariidae. Morphological descriptions with summaries of their biology for the following four new...

During surveys for natural enemies that could be used as classical biological control agents of Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi (Brazilian pepper), the caterpillar, Tecmessa elegans Schaus (Lepidoptera: Notodontidae), was recorded feeding on the leaves of the shrub in South America. The biology and larval and adult host range of this species were ex...

Exploratory field surveys of the natural enemies associated with balloon vine Cardiospermum grandiflorum Swartz, an environmental weed in South Africa, Australia and other countries, were conducted in northern Argentina from 2005 to 2009. The surveys included other plant species in the genus Cardiospermum and other native Sapindaceae, permitting an...

Brazilian peppertree (Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi, Anacardiaceae) is a perennial tree native to Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. The plant was introduced into the USA before 1900. Originally grown as an ornamental, Brazilian peppertree is now considered an noxious plant in Hawaii and Florida, where it is ranked among the most important threats t...