Releases of Beneficial 

 Organisms in the United States 



and Territories — 1 982 



Compiled by Jack R. Coulson 



Introduction 



Biological control of pests can be improved by good management of data. The 

 search for, collection, and importation of exotic natural enemies for release, 

 establishment, and dispersal as biological control agents of pests in the United 

 States and its Territories represent excellent opportunities, indeed an obliga- 

 tion, to collect and store valuable information of present and future scientific 

 and regulatory interest. The critical need to compile such data for improving 

 biological pest control is well recognized (Bottrell et al. 1976; USDA 1978; 

 Battenfield 1983; Coulson 1992). This type of information is of current and 

 historical interest not only to biological control and integrated pest manage- 

 ment scientists and administrators but also to systematists and ecologists. 

 Unfortunately, detailed records of biological control attempts have often not 

 been published or even kept in many instances (Greathead 1986). Compila- 

 tions of the results of these activities (for example, Clausen 1978) are usually 

 based only on generally incomplete published information. 



The introduction of living plant germplasm into the United States has long 

 been well documented in a series of annual publications of the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, the latest being for 1990 importations (Norris 1991), and 

 by the computerized Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) 

 (Perry et al. 1988). This present publication is the second of a series designed 



Biological Control Documentation Center, Insect Biocontrol Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research 

 Center, Beltsville, MD 20705. 



Although the data on which this publication is based were collected in 1982, much of the information 

 presented is not published elsewhere. These data are useful as scientific and historical records of the 

 importation and release of exotic organisms in the United States and its Territories and as guidelines for 

 further documentation. Funher details on these published records can be obtained from the pertinent 

 organizations listed in section VIII of this publication, or from the ROBO data base discussed in the 

 "Introduaion." This book may be the last in which these data will be published since such information for 

 subsequent years will be readily available in electronic form from the ROBO data base. 



to similarly document the importation of other beneficial organisms into the 

 United States and its Territories. It presents mostly unpublished information 

 on one of the activities involved in imponation programs, that is, the field or 

 greenhouse release of introduced biological control agents and pollinators. 



Since many of the releases represent recolonizations of introduced species from 

 established populations, the book also includes some information on establish- 

 ments and dispersals. 



Much additional information is stored in the computerized data base from 

 which this book was produced, including information on the original collec- 

 tion of foreign or overseas shipments arriving in the United States and its 

 Territories, that is, collection and importation data. Brief descriptions of this 

 data base, "Releases of Beneficial Organisms" (ROBO), have been published 

 (Coulson 1987, 1992). Publication of a more detailed description has been 

 planned and a 1985 user manual is being updated. In addition to this annual 

 publication, ROBO can produce the following computer reports: 



1. annual reports of releases, by State or facility, 



2. detailed reports of individual releases, 



3. annual reports of shipments or consignments from each domestic facility, 



4. annual reports of materials received by State or facility, 



5. detailed reports of individual shipments (quarantine and nonquarantine), 



6. annual reports of shipments from each overseas or foreign facility, 



7. annual reports of foreign shipments received by each domestic facility, 



8. detailed reports of individual foreign or overseas shipments. 



Three examples of individual release reports (item 2 in the preceding list) are 

 presented here; one is for a field release from quarantine (example 1) and two 

 are for nonquarantine releases (examples 2 and 3). Inquiries concerning each 

 of the data sets for these reports can currently be made using free- form Wang 



