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CEUTORHYNCHUS LITURA (COLEOPTERA: CURCULIONIDAE): BIOLOGY AND FIRST RELEASES FOR BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF THE WEED CANADA THISTLE (CIRSIUM ARVENSE) IN ONTARIO, CANADA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

D. P. Peschken
Affiliation:
Research Station, Canada Department of Agriculture, Regina, Saskatchewan
R. W. Beecher
Affiliation:
8 Plaza Square, Belleville, Ontario

Abstract

Ceutorhynchus litura (F.) laid an average of 123 eggs per female. Development from egg to adult took about 6 weeks at room temperature, followed by an obligatory diapause of 3–4 months. In laboratory rearings a maximum of only an 8-fold increase over the original breeding stock was achieved in one generation. The weevil was released against the weed Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop.) near Belleville, Ont., in 1967. Near the centre of the release site on about 400 m2, thistle shoots have decreased to 4% of their former density of about 3–7 shoots per 0.25 m2. Circumstantial evidence indicates that the weevil aided in the spread of thistle rust Puccinia punctiformis (Str.) Rohl.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1973

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