- Title
- Best of both worlds: The thermal physiology of Hydrellia egeriae, a biological control agent for the submerged aquatic weed, Egeria densa in South Africa
- Creator
- Smith, Rosali, Coetzee, Julie A, Hill, Martin P
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2022
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/417913
- Identifier
- vital:71494
- Identifier
- xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-022-10142-w"
- Description
- The submerged aquatic weed, Egeria densa Planch. (Hydrocharitaceae) or Brazilian waterweed, is a secondary invader of eutrophic freshwater systems in South Africa, following the successful management of floating aquatic weeds. In 2018, the leaf and stem-mining fly, Hydrellia egeriae Rodrigues-Júnior, Mathis and Hauser (Diptera: Ephydridae), was released against E. densa, the first agent released against a submerged aquatic weed in South Africa. During its life stages, the biological control agent is exposed to two environments, air and water. The thermal physiology of both life stages was investigated to optimize agent establishment through fine-tuned release strategies. The thermal physiological limits of H. egeriae encompassed its host plant’s optimal temperature range of 10 to 35 °C, with lower and upper critical temperatures of 2.6 to 47.0 °C, lower and upper lethal temperatures of − 5.6 and 40.6 °C for adults, and − 6.3 to 41.3 °C for larvae. Results from development time experiments and degree-day accumulation showed that the agent is capable of establishing at all E. densa sites in South Africa, with between 6.9 and 8.3 generations per year. However, cold temperatures (14 °C) prolonged the agent’s development time to three months, allowing it to only develop through one generation in winter. Predictions obtained from laboratory thermal physiology experiments corroborates field data, where the agent has established at all the sites it was released.
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (10 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- SpringerLink
- Language
- English
- Relation
- BioControl, Smith, R., Coetzee, J.A. and Hill, M.P., 2022. Best of both worlds: The thermal physiology of Hydrellia egeriae, a biological control agent for the submerged aquatic weed, Egeria densa in South Africa. BioControl, 67(3), pp.365-374, BioControl volume 67 number 3 p. 365 2022 1573-8248
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the SpringerLink Terms of Use Statement ( https://link.springer.com/termsandconditions)
- Rights
- Closed Access
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Collections
Coetzee, Julie A (Prof)
RU DST/NRF SARChI for Insects in Sustainable Agricultural Ecosystems
Hill, Martin Patrick (Distinguished Professor)
RU Department of Botany
SDG 15. Life On Land
RU Department of Zoology and Entomology
SDG 14. Life Below Water
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details | SOURCE1 | Best of both worlds.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |