Good article! One thing that I've come across when reading up on the issue of unintended consequences of biocontrol insects is that, until fairly recently, the main concern of those introducing species was the impact on plants, but without a lot of thought given to impacts on other insects. When studies were done, they often looked only at insects in a certain range -- let's say, the New England States, and didn't worry too much about somewhere "far away" like Arizona. However, with the changing climate, insects are spreading into ranges they never would have been found in before. Also, they are often dispersed by the winds, or accidentally moved by humans. This summer, I was checking up on Loosestrife beetles and it's interesting that, when moving out from the area where they were released, there were almost none even within 2 or three miles upwind of the release site, but on the downwind side (as in prevailing wind patterns), the insects had dispersed for miles.
croc |
