{"id":74144,"date":"2018-07-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uris-biocontrol-laboratory-heading-project-to-fight-invasive-weed\/"},"modified":"2018-07-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T00:00:00","slug":"uris-biocontrol-laboratory-heading-project-to-fight-invasive-weed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2018\/07\/uris-biocontrol-laboratory-heading-project-to-fight-invasive-weed\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Biocontrol Laboratory heading project to fight invasive weed"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I.–July 31, 2018–After more than 10 years of research, scientists at the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Biocontrol Laboratory have released a species of moth collected from Ukraine to help control invasive black and pale swallow-worts.<\/p>\n

Swallow-worts are invasive vines native to Europe that were introduced into North America in the 19th century, and quickly spread along the East Coast and into Canada. Not only do they outcompete native species and alter soil chemistry, but they harm Monarch butterfly populations. Because swallow-wort is so closely related to milkweed, Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on swallow-wort leaves, but when the eggs hatch the larvae are unable to survive on the plant.<\/p>\n

\"Graham<\/a>
Recent graduate and student worker Courtney Graham, left, and Laboratory Manager Lisa Tewksbury analyze Hypena opulenta larvae in the Biocontrol Lab. Photo by Nora Lewis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSwallow-wort was one of those weeds becoming increasingly problematic,\u201d said Aaron Weed, of Tunbridge, Vermont<\/strong>, a former PhD student at 溏心vlog免费B站 that spearheaded the project. Back in 2005 when Weed started his research as a 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate student, there was increasing interest in controlling swallow-worts. Since then, he\u2019s seen the vine spread aggressively. It thrives in several different environments, like pastures, forests and urban spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIntegrated management of weeds is a very challenging endeavor,\u201d Weed said. \u201cBiocontrol is potentially efficacious for swallow-wort because conventional methods just weren\u2019t working or were incompatible in sensitive areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weed ventured to Europe to try and find natural enemies of swallow-worts and brought back several insect species to test at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Biocontrol Lab. Among them was the Hypena opulenta<\/em>, a small moth collected from southeastern Ukraine, that the lab found feeds exclusively on swallow-wort species. Weed worked with Lisa Tewksbury, 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Biocontrol Lab manager, and Richard Casagrande, Professor Emeritus of entomology at 溏心vlog免费B站, to conduct years of research on the biology of Hypena opulenta<\/em> and its impact on swallow-worts.<\/p>\n

Read more about student<\/a> involvement in the Biocontrol Lab.<\/p>\n

Hypena opulenta<\/em> was a suitable candidate because it uses swallow-wort exclusively as its host plant, and reproduces several times a year. Its larvae have the potential to cause significant harm to the plants, according to Tewksbury.<\/p>\n

溏心vlog免费B站 received the permit to release the moths in 2017, and field tests in controlled cages were conducted in Charlestown, Rhode Island and Massachusetts the same year. Tewksbury has been monitoring the releases this spring, and if they\u2019re successful, she said the lab plans to work with other local agencies to share resources and release the moths in other areas.<\/p>\n

Tewksbury\u2019s lab found the first moth that emerged in June, but hasn\u2019t seen any others emerge yet. Tewksbury hypothesized that Rhode Island\u2019s unusually cool temperatures throughout the month of June may delay the moths\u2019 emergence, and added that this is the first time that we\u2019re seeing the emergence of this species in New England.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of biological control is to reacquaint new pests with their historical natural enemies,\u201d Tewksbury said. \u201cThis restores the evolutionary relationship of an insect with its host plant, which we hope will provide long-term management of the invasive plant species.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continued research is needed and underway to assess how well this insect will control populations across New England. \u201cSince insects are impacted by the health of their plants, the local climate, and the health of plants is affected by site conditions, we still need to determine under which site conditions biocontrol impact is likely to lead to weed suppression,\u201d Weed said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I.–July 31, 2018–After more than 10 years of research, scientists at the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Biocontrol Laboratory have released a species of moth collected from Ukraine to help control invasive black and pale swallow-worts. Swallow-worts are invasive vines native to Europe that were introduced into North America in the 19th century, and quickly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-74144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}