Department of Entomology

The majority of work conducted in my laboratory focuses on the biological control of exotic arthropod pests that attack agricultural and ornamental plants in California. I am also very interested in the biological control of exotic weeds. Four areas of biological control are studied to develop sustainable solutions for invasive pest problems. These four areas are: (1) augmentative biological control which involves evaluating the efficacy and cost effectiveness of periodic releases of natural enemies into cropping systems for the suppression of key pests. Research in augmentative biological control has examined the feasibility of using predacious mites for the control of pest mites in avocados. (2) Inundative biological control research has studied the feasibility of regular mass releases of white fly natural enemies, in particular releases of parasitic wasps, for the control of pest whiteflies infesting ornamental plants grown in greenhouses. (3) Conservation biological control research is investigating the practice of habitat modification (cover crops) and resource provisionment (flowering plants) to improve conditions in cropping systems (e.g., organic vineyards in southern California) for natural enemies so they can exert greater control on pest population growth. Additionally, we also work cooperatively with other laboratories to evaluate the safety of pesticides to natural enemies so IPM strategies can be developed for pests. (4) Classical or introduction biological control is the deliberate importation and release of exotic natural enemies for control of an invasive pest species. These biological control agents are typically imported from the home range of the pest and ideally exhibit high levels of host specificity. Work in classical biological control investigates the impact new natural enemies have on the selected target, the safety of the released natural enemies, and questions such as the importance of genetic diversity and climate matching are also of interest. Better understanding of the biology, behavior, and ecology of exotic pests and introduced natural enemies is a major focus. I also work on thrips of importance to California. This is a four-fold program that focuses on: (1) identifying and studying exotic pest thrips species, (2) identifying native California thrips, and investigating the biodiversity and plant and habitat specialization of native species, (3) the morphological and (4) genetic characteristics of these very interesting insects. California has a very rich native thrips fauna that has been poorly studied over the last 40 years and this is an area that has great research potential. In addition to being notorious pests, thrips are excellent study organisms for investigating factors that affect invasion success or lack thereof, and for studying bizarre reproductive biologies. A new area that is of interest is acoustic communication in native California sharpshooters. This work is concentrating on identifying, characterizing, and quantifying substrate-borne songs, documenting the periodicity of song production, and the role song variation has in promoting incipient speciation amongst widely separated sharpshooter populations.