INSECTS ASSOCIATED WITH WILD PLANTS IN 

 EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST 



Biological Control of Weeds Surveys 



Compiled by Robert W. Pemberton, collaborating entomologist, and 

 EdnaM. Hoover, entomologist (retired) 



INTRODUCTION 



The Biological Control of Weeds Labora- 

 tory-Europe of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture (USDA) is located in Rome, Italy. 

 The primary function of this facility, which was 

 started in 1959 by Lloyd A. Andres and Antonio 

 Rizza, is the discovery and study of natural 

 enemies associated with weeds native to Europe 

 and the Middle East, which are problem exotics 

 in North America. 



This publication lists the insects that have been 

 collected and reared from some of these exotic 

 weeds from 1959 to 1976. The list contains only 

 the insect species represented in the laboratory 

 collection and thereby omits many species that 

 were collected and reared but for various reasons 

 are no longer in the Rome collection. 



The plant taxa included in this publication 

 consist of 23 genera and 71 identified species; 351 

 insect species, representing 91 families, are listed 

 as collected or reared from these plants. Although 

 the majority of the collections were made in Italy, 

 material was also obtained in Austria, Bulgaria, 

 Egypt, England, France, Germany, Greece, Iran, 

 Israel, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and 

 Yugoslavia. 



The insects are listed in two tables, one tax- 



1 Respectively, Division of Biological Control, Department 

 of Entomology, University of California, Berkeley, Calif. 

 94706; and Insect Identification and Beneficial Insect In- 

 troduction Institute, Beltsville Agricultural Research 

 Center, Beltsville, Md. 20705. 



onomic (table 1, p. 2) and the other a faunal listing 

 under the host plants (table 2, p. 15). 



The large number of rearings and feeding obser- 

 vations listed in the host plant table is signifi- 

 cant. Of the 351 insect species included in this 

 work, more than half were reared; 260 are her- 

 biverous and more than two-thirds of these were 

 reared. In all, 317 rearing records are listed; in 

 this context, we use rearing record to mean a 

 unique combination of insect and host. For exam- 

 ple, the Tephritid Urophora quadrifasciata 

 (Meigen) was reared from Centaurea jaceae L. and 

 C. maculosa Lam., thus yielding two records. In 

 addition, when the same insect species is reared 

 in two different countries, two records are 

 counted, even if the same host is involved. 



The information contained in these tables was 

 taken from specimen labels and laboratory 

 records. The inclusion of precise locality and col- 

 lection dates for all of the species would have 

 made this work too lengthy. This type of informa- 

 tion can be obtained by writing the Location 

 Leader, Biological Control of Weeds Laboratory- 

 Europe, c/o American Embassy, Agriculture, 

 New York, N.Y., APO 09794. 



The senior author served principally as the 

 organizer and compiler of the data. The junior 

 author worked with scientists in verifying the ac- 

 curacy of the scientific names and in determining, 

 from records, the persons responsible for the iden- 

 tifications. 



The scientists of the Systematic Entomology 



