Simon Andrew Lawson

University of the Sunshine Coast | USC · Faculty of Arts and Business, Forest Industries Research Centre

Xylosandrus crassiusculus is an invasive Asian-origin ambrosia beetle that has spread across many regions of the world, including first records in Queensland, Australia, in 2011 and New Zealand in 2019. To determine the seasonal flight activity of this species in Australia, panel traps using quercivorol + ethanol lures were placed at three study si...

There are over 7 million ha of eucalypt and acacia plantations in Southeast Asia (SE Asia), comprising both corporate and smallholder plantings. These plantations contribute significantly to national and regional economies and provide diverse ecosystem services. Increased trade, the global movement of people, and a changing climate increase the thr...

The sucking insect, Glycaspis brimblecombei Moore (Hemiptera: Aphalaridae), is originally from Australia and reduces the productivity of Eucalyptus crops. The parasitoid Psyllaephagus bliteus Riek (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) is the main agent used in the integrated management of G. brimblecombei. Endosymbionts, in insects, are important in the adapt...

Australia has a comprehensive plant biosecurity system, with the Australian Government responsible for pre-border (e.g., off-shore compliance) and border (e.g., import inspections) activities, while state governments undertake a variety of post-border activities (e.g., post-border surveillance, management of pest incursions, and regulation of pests...

Glycaspis brimblecombei is an invasive insect pest of Eucalyptus that has spread rapidly around the world since its first report in California in 1998. The pest now occurs on at least four continents where Eucalyptus is grown as a non-native plantation species. To characterize global routes of invasion for this insect, we characterized the sequence...

To ensure the protection of natural and planted forests in South-East Asia, it is vital that the risks posed by invasive and local pests are minimised and that effective mitigation and response plans are in place. To do so, forest biosecurity laws need to be developed to coordinate policy, direct on-ground activities to prepare the region to respon...

Certification programs may include market access benefits for those business that have certified voluntarily, but there are also other consequences, such as the ban on the use of certain chemical pesticides imposed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) that can negatively affect integrated pest management. The Programme for the Endorsement of For...

Gonipterus species are pests of Eucalyptus plantations worldwide. The egg parasitoid wasp Anaphes nitens is used in many countries for the biological control of Gonipterus spp. Recent taxonomic studies have shown that the three invasive Gonipterus spp., which were previously considered as G. scutellatus, form part of a cryptic species complex. Thes...

Gonipterus is a genus of defoliating weevils that causes significant impact in commercially grown eucalypts in their native range in southern Australia and as invasive pests in Western Australia and several countries overseas. The diversity of species in this genus is still in the process of discovery, and in subtropical Australia, its diversity an...

Progress update on supply chain optimisation program and other research activities at USC/Australia

The introduction of Australian psyllids to non-native ranges across the globe is continually increasing. This is due to an increase in global trade and human movement, exacerbated by climate change. Several psyllids have been recorded as pests of eucalypts in the native range of these trees. With the current trend of eucalypt pest introductions, th...

The bronze bug, Thaumastocoris peregrinus, is an endemic Australian eucalypt pest that has become a serious threat to the global forestry industry. Following a large outbreak within its native range in 2002, introduced populations of the bronze bug appeared in South Africa and Argentina. Since then, T. peregrinus has spread rapidly around the world...

Since outbreaks of the invasive blue gum chalcids Leptocybe spp. began, the genus Megastigmus (Hymenoptera: Megastigmidae) has been increasingly studied as containing potential biocontrol agents against these pests. Megastigmus species have been collected and described from Australia, the presumed origin of Leptocybe spp., with M. zvimendeli and M....

The genus Megastigmus Dalman, 1820 (Hymenoptera: Megastigmidae) contains potential biocontrol agents of the invasive eucalypt galling chalcid Leptocybe spp. (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), with several species reported in various parts of the world. Species discrimination is challenging due to intraspecific morphological variation, difficulty in measuri...

Several European and Mediterranean species of pine bark beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) have become established in North America and the southern hemisphere, posing a novel threat to planted and naturally-occurring pine forests. Our objectives were to investigate (1) the occurrence and relative abundance of pine bark beetles in thes...

Insect pests damage millions of hectares of forest worldwide each year. Moreover, the extent of such damage is increasing as international trade grows, facilitating the spread of insect pests, and as the impacts of climate change become more evident. Classical biological control is a well-tried, cost-effective approach to the management of invasive...

Population dynamics of forest insect pests are a key determinant of forest health globally, but there is often insufficient information on tree susceptibility and environmental drivers of attack to construct pest population models that inform management. We investigated susceptibility of Corymbia citriodora subsp. variegata (spotted gum) plantation...

Fire has a varied influence on plant and animal species through direct (e.g. fire‐induced mortality) and indirect (e.g. modification of habitat) effects. Our understanding of the influence of fire regime on invertebrates and their response to fire‐induced modifications to habitat is poor. We aimed to determine the response of a beetle family (Coleo...

Biological invasions represent a major threat to agriculture and forestry across the globe. Thaumastocoris peregrinus is a small sap-sucking heteropteran bug that has recently invaded a number of eucalypt plantations worldwide from its native range in Australia. To date, no studies have examined the range of this insect within Australia, and its po...

Increased rates of movement and the accumulation of insects establishing outside their native range is leading to the ‘global homogenization’ of agricultural and forestry pests. We use an invasive wasp, Leptocybe invasa (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), as a case study to highlight the rapid and complex nature of these global invasions and how they can co...

The Eulophidae genus Leptocybe Fisher and La Salle and its type species L. invasa was first described in 2004 as an invasive galling pest causing serious damage to young eucalypts in the Middle East and Mediterranean. Believed to be of Australian origin, two cryptic species of Leptocybe have established throughout the world at an unprecedented rate...

The quarantine laboratory “Costa Lima” (LQCL) of Embrapa Meio Ambiente has contributed to the classical biological control of several exotic forest pests in Brazil. The first of these was the red gum lerp psyllid, Glycaspis brimblecombei, present in Brazil since 2003. Between 2004 and 2006, the parasitoid Psyllaephagus bliteus was imported from thr...

The quarantine laboratory “Costa Lima” (LQCL) of Embrapa Meio Ambiente has contributed to the classical biological control of several exotic forest pests in Brazil. The first of these was the red gum lerp psyllid, Glycaspis brimblecombei, present in Brazil since 2003. Between 2004 and 2006, the parasitoid Psyllaephagus bliteus was imported from thr...

Pine wilt disease, caused by the Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (pinewood nematode), has caused extensive damage to Pinus forests where it has invaded countries with susceptible hosts and with co-occurring native species of the cerambycid beetle Monochamus. A pest risk analysis showed that there is a moderate likelihood of pinewood nematode and its pri...

A review of current forest health surveillance and biosecurity surveillance activities and programs in Australia was conducted, including a grower survey, followed by benchmarking against the New Zealand system. We define forest health surveillance (e.g. in plantations) as activities dealing with endemic or established non-indigenous pests, and bio...

The forest, wood and paper products industry is a significant contributor to the Australian economy, ranking as the eighth largest manufacturing sector, with gross value of sales in 2015–2016 in excess of $23 billion, and an industry value-add of $9 billion. As with other agricultural industries, forest, wood and paper production is under constant...

Forest health and biosecurity programs rarely capture sufficient data to enable thorough cost-benefit analyses to be done. One notable exception has been Forestry Tasmania’s research project to develop and use an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program for the leaf beetle Paropsisterna bimaculata. For this project we were able to estimate all majo...

Sirex noctilio (Sirex) is an exotic wood wasp and a pest of Pinus that has been in Australia for 65 years. Our study quantified expenditure on Sirex control between 1952 and 2014 through the National Sirex Control program, and costed the impact of three major outbreaks where large-scale tree mortality occurred. We estimate the combined cost of the...

The Tasmanian leaf beetle Paropsisterna bimaculata is a species native to Tasmania that can cause severe defoliation of eucalypt plantations. High populations of P. bimaculata, capable of causing severe defoliation if unmanaged, can periodically occur through a substantial proportion of a plantation rotation. Some exotic insect pests not yet establ...

This proceedings contains papers dealing with issues affecting biological control, particularly pertaining to the use of parasitoids and predators as biological control agents. This includes all approaches to biological control: conservation, augmentation, and importation of natural enemy species for the control of arthropod targets, as well as oth...

This proceedings contains papers dealing with issues affecting biological control, particularly pertaining to the use of parasitoids and predators as biological control agents. This includes all approaches to biological control: conservation, augmentation, and importation of natural enemy species for the control of arthropod targets, as well as oth...

This proceedings contains papers dealing with issues affecting biological control, particularly pertaining to the use of parasitoids and predators as biological control agents. This includes all approaches to biological control: conservation, augmentation, and importation of natural enemy species for the control of arthropod targets, as well as oth...

Biofilm formation on plastic debris needs to be further investigated, because microorganisms attached to plastics are transferred in all three dimensions to new regions by ocean currents. The current study aims to investigate biofilm formation on plastic strips in aquatic ecosystems using a simple physicochemical method commonly used to characteriz...

Native Mediterranean forests in Australia are dominated by two tree genera, Eucalyptus and Acacia, while Pinus and Eucalyptus dominate plantation forestry. In native forests, there is a high diversity of phloem and wood borers across several families in the Coleoptera and Lepidoptera. In the Coleoptera, cerambycid beetles (Cerambycidae), jewel beet...

The Eucalyptus Bronze Bug, Thaumastocoris peregrinus (Hemiptera: Thaumastocoridae) is a invasive pest in Brazil, detected in 2008. This chapter brings information about taxonomy, morphology, geographic distribution, plant hosts, bioecology, monitoring and control methods, mainly biological control, with egg parasitoid Cleruchoides noackae, predator...

The cossid moth ( Coryphodema tristis ) has a broad range of native tree hosts in South Africa. The moth recently moved into non-native Eucalyptus plantations in South Africa, on which it now causes significant damage. Here we investigate the chemicals involved in pheromone communication between the sexes of this moth in order to better understand...

Thaumastocoris peregrinus is a sap-sucking insect that infests non-native Eucalyptus plantations in Africa, New Zealand, South America and parts of Southern Europe, in addition to street trees in parts of its native range of Australia. In South Africa, pronounced fluctuations in the population densities have been observed. To characterise spatiotem...

Routine forest health surveillance of Eucalyptus nitens and E. globulus plantations in Tasmania has detected more frequent borer-related mortality in mid-rotation plantations in drier areas of the state. Damaging borer populations are not usually detected using traditional health surveillance techniques until mortality has occurred. Appropriately b...

Phoracantha longicorn beetles are endemic to Australia, and some species have become significant pests of eucalypts worldwide, yet little is known about their host plant interactions and factors influencing tree susceptibility in Australia. Here, we investigate the host relationships of Phoracantha solida (Blackburn, 1894) on four eucalypt taxa (on...

Context Southern Hemisphere plantation forestry has grown substantially over the past few decades and will play an increasing role in fibre production and carbon sequestration in future. The sustainability of these plantations is, however, increasingly under pressure from introduced pests. This pressure requires an urgent and matching increase in t...

Thaumastocoris peregrinus Carpintero and Dellapé (Hemiptera: Thaumastocoridae) is a native Australian Eucalyptus sap-feeding insect that has become invasive and seriously damaging to commercially grown Eucalyptus in the Southern Hemisphere. Cleruchoides noackae Lin and Huber (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) was recently discovered as an egg parasitoid of t...

Foliar oils, particularly monoterpenes, can influence the susceptibility of plants to herbivory. In plants, including eucalypts, monoterpenes are often associated with plant defence. A recent analysis revealed an increase in foliar oil content with increasing latitudinal endemism, and we tested this pattern using three eucalypt taxa comprising a la...

Eucalyptus species, native to Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and New Guinea, are the most widely planted hardwood timber species in the world. The trees, moved around the globe as seeds, escaped the diverse community of herbivores found in their native range. However, a number of herbivore species from the native range of eucalypts have inv...

Corymbia hybrids are becoming significant plantation varieties in subtropical and tropical Australian plantation forestry. Although primarily developed for disease resistance and amenability to clonal propagation, they have also proven to have good growth rates and site plasticity. Here we examined the susceptibility of pure Corymbia species and hy...

Thaumastocoris peregrinus is a recently introduced invertebrate pest of non-native Eucalyptus plantations in the Southern Hemisphere. It was first reported from South Africa in 2003 and in Argentina in 2005. Since then, populations have grown explosively and it has attained an almost ubiquitous distribution over several regions in South Africa on 2...

Reproduction and survival of I. typographus japonicus at non-outbreak densities in relation to two tree species, its natural host, Picea jezoensis, and an introduced host, Picea abies, was investigated in 1990 and 1991 in the natural mixed forest zone of Hokkaido, Japan. Beetles did not discriminate between logs of the two species during the attack...

Relative overwinter survival of Ips grandicollis Eichh. and its parasitoid Roptrocerus xylophagorum Ratz. were compared in a field population in South Australia. Preliminary observations suggested that immature stages of the parasitoid suffered less overwinter mortality than did the host. Sample billets were taken from pine slash on two occasions d...

The effect of host tree on the ecology of the insect natural enemy complex of Ips typographus was investigated. Tree species was found to influence parasitoid composition and abundance, with pteromalids being more abundant in Picea jezoensis than in P. abies. Within trees, bark texture had a significant influence on pteromalid density with higher d...

Forest health surveillance (FHS) of hardwood plantations commenced in Queensland in 1997 as plantations expanded following a state government planting initiative arising from the national 2020 forest policy vision. The estate was initially characterised by a large number of small plantations (10–50 ha), although this has changed more recently with...

Abstract  A field survey for natural enemies of Paropsis atomaria was conducted at two south-eastern Queensland Eucalyptus cloeziana plantation sites during 2004–2005. Primary egg and larval parasitoids and associated hyperparasitoids were identified to genus or species, and parasitism rates were determined throughout the season. Predators were ide...

Abstract Neopolycystus sp. is the only primary egg parasitoid associated with the pest beetle Paropsis atomaria in subtropical eucalypt plantations, but its impact on its host populations is unknown. The simplified ecosystem represented by the plantation habitat, lack of interspecific competition for host and parasitoid, and the multivoltinism of t...

Paropsis atomaria is a recently emerged pest of eucalypt plantations in subtropical Australia. Its broad host range of at least 20 eucalypt species and wide geographical distribution provides it the potential to become a serious forestry pest both within Australia and, if accidentally introduced, overseas. Although populations of P. atomaria are ge...

Currently Australia and New Zealand are free of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, the pinewood nematode (PWN), which causes the pine wilt disease, and its primary vectors Monochamus spp. Both countries have increasing interest in this pest due to the significant area of exotic pine plantations, predominantly Pinus radiata, and native conifer species that...

Ceratocystis spp. include important pathogens of trees as well as apparently saprophytic species. Four species have been recorded on Eucalyptus grandis in Australia, of which only one, C. pirilliformis Barnes and M.J. Wingf., is known to be pathogenic. A recent survey of pests and diseases of Eucalyptus trees in northern Queensland revealed a speci...

In the past few years several Australia forestry companies have set in place procedures for certification in sustainable forest management (Forest Stewardship Council and Australian Forestry Standard). Eucalypt plantation forestry in sub-tropical New South Wales and Queensland is substantially different from that in temperate southern Australia, wi...

The development of a high value timber industry in northern Australia requires high-level, long-term investment. To secure such a commitment, potential investors and growers must be confident of achieving high productivity and/or high quality end product. Pests and diseases, and their effect on tree health, can be major limiting factors to tree est...

The impact of natural enemies on the reproduction and survival of Ips typographus japonicus Niijima in Hokkaido was tested by sequentially caging off cohorts of a single beetle generation so as to investigate the effects of natural enemies at different developmental stages. A consistent increase in mortality of between 17–18% in the first 2–3 weeks...

: In Hokkaido (Japan), the spruce beetle (Ips typograpaus japonicus) kills standing spruce trees after selection cutting. The seasonal change in the number of beetles captured in 18–21 traps within or outside forest was analysed, with reference to a control strategy for this species in a bivoltine area. The number of beetles captured in traps had t...

Temnochila virescens, a bark beetle predator from the southeastern USA, was imported into Australia in 1981 as part of a biological control program for Ips grandicollis, the five-spined engraver beetle. To meet quarantine requirements, studies were carried out to determine the prey-specificity of predator adults. In tests of prey acceptability, T....

Rearing methods for two coleopterous predators,Thanasimus dubius andTemnochila virescens, imported into Australia for the biological control ofIps grandicollis, were developed. Bionomic data obtained from laboratory rearings between 1982–1987 showed thatT. dubius eggs took about 7 days to hatch and that duration of the larval stage was about 42 day...

Rearing methods for two coleopterous predators, Thanasimus dubius and Temnochila virescens, imported into Australia for the biological control of Ips grandicollis, were developed. Bionomic data obtained from laboratory rearings between 1982–1987 showed that T. dubius eggs took about 7 days to hatch and that duration of the larval stage was about 42...

Extended abstract There is a general appreciation in most countries that have well-developed forestry industries, of the threats to wood production posed by outbreaks of pests and pathogens. Forest health surveillance (FHS), the formal inspection of planted and natural forests by trained observers for the purpose of detecting damage, is used as a t...