June 1998, Volume 19 No. 2

• Editorial
• General News
• Biorational
• Internet Round-Up
• New Books
• Conference Reports
• Proceedings
• Training News

Internet Round-Up

By: Peter McEwen, Insect Investigations Ltd, School of Pure & Applied Biology, University of Wales, Cardiff, PO Box 915, Cardiff CF1 3TL, UK

E-mail: McEwen@cf.ac.uk

Curiously enough Internet Roundup has not yet specifically covered the subject of biological control. This omission is corrected this month but immediately presents me with the problem of subject definition - what, exactly, does biological control mean? For my purposes I am happy to accept the definition given on the Biological Control Virtual Information Centre (BCVIC) at

http://ipmwww.ncsu.edu/biocontrol/biocontrol.html

namely that -Biological control is the use of one organism to suppress another·. The BCVIC is a good focal point for biological control on the Internet and I recommend that you start here.

Following the link to -tell me more about biological control· produces a more complete definition of what we·re talking about, outlines advantages (pesticide reduction for example) and disadvantages (you need to know what you are doing) of the use of biological control and provides a brief outline of what is meant by classical biological control, augmentation and conservation - the three main strands to biological control. There is more to this site and you should take a look around it but I will follow one of the links to other biological control sites provided (there are loads of these) to the Guide to Natural Enemies in North America at

http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/

This is a nice website that presents the viewer with a series of side-by-side -bookmarks· leading on to further information about parasitoids, predators, pathogens or weed feeders, depending which -bookmark· you click on. Following the link to -Predators· leads to information on what predators are and discussion of their effectiveness in biological control. Click on the table of contents and you arrive at some really useful information (you can go straight to http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/predators/predtoc.html if you want to take a short cut!). Lists of predators are given including Chrysoperla carnea, various ladybirds and Orius sp. Following the lacewing link leads to some photos of lacewings and information on biology, phenology (there is a nice diagram of the life cycle), pests attacked, relative effectiveness, pesticide susceptibility, conservation and commercial availability.

Moving off at a tangent somewhat, take a look at the Nematodes as Biological Control Agents of Insects page at

http://waffle.nal.usda.gov/agdb/nema_bca.html

The site provides information on entomopathogenic nematodes as well as links to other related sites. Information is also presented on the taxonomy and systematics of these nematodes. An extensive searchable bibliography on the subject can also be accessed but I didn·t actually search it for this article.

The message coming out loud and clear from my Internet travels is that there is a lot of stuff on biological control and that it can·t be given justice here. It·s probably best to stop at this point and let you use my starting points for your own travels. I notice on reading through the foregoing that the article is very entomologically based. This is because I·m an entomologist but hopefully you will find your own links to other areas of biological control. I gather for example that muscovy ducks are recommended for the biological control of house flies, but I leave you to find that one for yourselves.

This is my last -Round-up· for BNI. I·ve decided to retire from the fray and surrender my position to a fresh mind. I hope that you have enjoyed reading the articles as much as I have enjoyed producing them.