UMD Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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Author: search.filters.author.Gardner, Richard ThomasSubject: search.filters.subject.Agriculture, Plant Pathology

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    Native and Indigenous Biocontrols for Ailanthus altissima
    (2008-07-11) Gardner, Richard Thomas; Straney, David C; Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Ailanthus altissima is one of the top invasive weed trees in North America. Native and indigenous biocontrols consisting of insects and fungi were found in a unique series of interactions in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The insects are Aculops ailanthii, an eriophyoid mite and Atteva punctella, the Ailanthus web worm. Mimosa wilt, Fusarium oxysporum, isolated from a mimosa tree, Albizia julibrissin, was successful in the laboratory through two generations testing Koch's postulates on Ailanthus seedlings. Atteva punctella selectively feeds on male trees. Fusarium lateritium and/or Fusarium solani may be sterilizing female trees through necrotic lesions, allowing herbivory on the sterilized female trees by Atteva punctella. The carriers appear to be Atteva punctella and Ambrosia beetles (Schall, 2007). Aculops ailanthii was found in the field and brought back into the lab for a successful test of Koch's postulates on seedlings. Using partial biocontrol, control of Ailanthus appears to be possible.