Bellyache bush and Parkinsonia biocontrol agents

Summary

Previously, a significant amount of survey work had been done in Central America looking for potential biocontrol agents but the species resulting from those surveys had not been identified or prioritised. This project surveyed new areas of South America, identified the entire insect fauna and assessed their potential for release in Australia. Before this project, we had not identified any high potential agents, now we have three agents for parkinsonia that have a high probability of being suitable for introduction into Australia. We have been less successful with bellyache bush but at least we now know with certainty that this target weed has few prospects. The techniques we developed in this project will assist future biocontrol projects to achieve their objectives more quickly.