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KLAMATH WEED (= ST. JOHN'S WORT) Hypericum perforatum L. --
Hypericaceae (Contacts) ----- CLICK on Photo to enlarge & search for Subject Matter with Ctrl/F. GO TO ALL: Bio-Control Cases
Chemical
herbicides were available but not practical because of cost and the
inaccessibility of most of the infested land. Dr. Harry S. Smith, head of biological control work in
California, proposed the importation of insects that attacked the weed as
early as 1922, but the thought of deliberately introducing a plant feeding
insect was not acceptable at that time.
At
the same time, in Australia phytophagous insects to control Klamath weed were
being introduced from England and Europe beginning in 1929, and Dr. Smith in
California followed the progress there with great interest through
correspondence with Dr. A. J. Nicholson, Chief Entomologist for the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Authorization was finally obtained in 1944
to import three species of beetles that showed promise against the weed in
Australia. It was not possible then
to consider importations from Europe because of World War II, bur rather
simple to bring material from Australia through the cooperation of the United
States Army Transport Command. The
CSIRO offered to collect and prepare the material for shipment. Importations began in October 1944 but
problems were soon encountered in changing the timing of the life cycle so
the beetles would be in phase with seasons in the Northern Hemisphere. Two species of Chrysolina that were in aestivation responded rapidly in
California to fine mist sprays of water to become active and lay eggs within
three weeks. The third species, Agrilus sp., was lost. After starvation tests in quarantine on a
variety of economic plants the beetles were released in the field. Chrysolina hyperici
(Förster) was liberated in the spring of 1945 and Chrysolina quadrigemina
(Suffrian) in February 1946. Both
were readily established but it soon became evident that C. quadrigemina
was becoming dominant. Distribution
throughout the entire infested areas was rapidly made from the original
colonies. From one colony of 5,000
beetles released in 1945-6, more than 3 million beetles were collected for
redistribution in California in 1950.
There were also sent to Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana where
they became established. The
Klamath weed was reduced to the status of an uncommon roadside weed in
California after 10 years, its abundance having been reduced >99%. Land values immediately increased 3-4X,
and weight losses in cattle and sheep ceased. It was estimated that at least $20,960,000.00 in savings
accrued to the agriculture industry in California for the period 1953-9 or
about $3,500,000.00 per year (DeBach 1974), and these savings continue to
accrue each year without even taking inflation into account (Holloway
1964). This
effort was one of the few transfer projects during World War II. For example, the leaf beetle, Chrysolina hyperici (Förster) was transferred from Australia to New
Zealand in 1943 for the biological control of St. Johnswort. In 1944 the introduction of several insect
species from Australia was made to California for specificity testing and release
during 1945-46 for the biological control of St. Johnswort, which became
known as Klamath weed. J. K. Holloway
of the USDA and H. S. Smith of UC, Riverside organized the work. Successful biological control of Klamath
weed, primarily caused by the defoliating leaf beetle, Chrysolina quadrigemina
(Suffrian), rivaled the Australian success with prickly pear cacti. This success primarily was responsible for
fostering the establishment and expansion of biological noxious plant control
in North America (Huffaker 1957). The
first intentional introduction of an insect for plant control was made in
Canada in 1950 with the importation of Chrysolina
quadrigemina and C. hyperici from California to control St. Johnswort (Smith
1951). Within a decade after the
liberation of C. hyperici and C. quadrigemina, the Klamath weed had been reduced in status
from an extremely important rangeland scourge to that of an occasional
roadside plant, and now occurs at less than 1% of its former density and has
been removed from the list of noxious plants in California (Holloway &
Huffaker 1949, 1951, Goeden & Andrés 1999). Its present occurrence primarily along roadsides is linked to
disturbance there of the phytophagous biological control agents and to areas
in the northernmost part of its range in America, e.g., Coastal Alaska, where
it is a sparse and attractive wild addition to the evergreen background (E. F. Legner,
unpub. data). For
greater detail on biological control efforts, and biologies of host plant and
natural enemies, please see the following (Froggatt 1919, Tryon 1919,
Tillyard 1927a,b,c, 1930a,b, 1934; Currie & Garthside 1932, Currie &
Fyfe 1938, Currie 1940, Moore & Cashmore 1942, Wilson 1943, 1953, 1960,
1963; Wilson & Campbell 1943, Miller 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1951;
Cashmore & Campbell 1946, Holloway 1948, 1964; Huffaker 1948, 1967;
Abrams 1951, Smith 1951, 1955, 1958;
Clark & Clark 1952, Clark 1953, Holloway & Huffaker 1952,
1953; Huffaker & Kennett 1953, Holloway 1957, 1964; Parsons 1957, Marco
1959, Munz & Keck 1959, Villaneuva & Faure 1959, 1964, Douglas &
Schmidl 1960, Harris 1962, 1967; Johansson 1962a,b; McLeod 1962, Nelson 1962,
Hoy 1963, Kingsbury 1964, Davis & Krauss 1966, 1967; Henderson &
Anderson 1966, Ritcher 1966, Given 1967, Davis 1968, Goeden 1970). REFERENCES: [Additional references may be found at: MELVYL
Library ] Abrams, L.
1951. Illustrated Flora of the
Pacific States. III. Stanford
Univ. Press,
Stanford, Calif. 866 p. Bellows, T. S. & T. W. Fisher (eds.). 1999. Handbook
of Biological Control: Principles and
Applications. Academic Press, San
Diego, New York. 1046 p. Cashmore, A. B. & T. G. Campbell. 1946.
The weed problem in Australia:
A review. Austral. Council
Sci. & Indus. Res. J. 19: 16-31. Clark, L. R.
1953. The ecology of Chrysomela gemellata Rossi and C.
hyperici Forst., and their
effect on St. John's wort in the Bright District, Victoria. Aust. J. Zool. 1: 1-69. Clark, L. R. & N. Clark. 1952.
A study of the effect of Chrysolina
hyperici Forst. on St.
John's wort in the Nannus Valley, N.S.W.
Austral. J. Agric. Res. 3:
29-59. Clark, N.
1953. The biology of Hypericum perforatum L. var. angustifolium
DC. (St. John's wort) in the Ovens Valley, Victoria, with particular
reference to entomological control. Aust. J. Bot.
1: 95-120. Currie, G.
A. 1940. Some Australian
weed problems. In: Commonwealth
Bur. Pasture and Field Crops, Herb. Publ. Ser. Bull. 27: 113-30. Currie, G.
A. & R. V. Fyfe. 1938.
The fate of certain European insects introduced into Australia for the
control of weeds. Austral. Council
Sci. & Indus. Res. J. 11:
289-301. Currie, G. A. & S. Garthside. 1932.
The possibility of the entomological control of St. John's wort in
Australia--progress report. Austral.
Council Sci. & Indus. Res. Pam. 29: 1-25. Davis, C. J.
1968. Report of the Entomology
Branch. Hawaii Dept. Agric. Rept., 10
p. (Mimeo). Davis, C. J.
& N. L. H. Krauss. 1966.
Recent introductions for biological control. Hawaii. Ent. Soc. Proc. 19:
201-07. Davis, C. J.
& N. L. H. Krauss. 1967.
Recent introductions for biological control in Hawaii--XI. Hawaii. Ent. Soc. Proc. 19: 375-80. DeBach, P.
1974. Biological Control by
Natural Enemies. Cambridge University
Press, London & New York. 323 p. Douglas, G. W.
& L. Schmidl. 1960. A
review of biological control of noxious weeds in Victoria. 2nd Austral. Weed Conf. 1 Proc., Paper
1. 6 p. Froggatt, W.
W. 1919. Insects and St.
John's wort. New South Wales Agric. Gaz., Misc.
Publ. 2192: 470-72. Given, B. B.
1967. Biological control of
weeds and insect pests in New Zealand.
Mushi 39 (Sup.): 17-22. Goeden, R. D.
1977. Chapter 4: Biological
control of weeds, p. 43-47. In: B. Truelove (ed.), Research Methods in Weed Science. S. Weed Sci. Soc., Auburn Printing,
Auburn, Georgia. Goeden, R.
D. 1978. Hypericaceae. In: C. P. Clausen (ed.), Introduced Parasites
and Predators of Arthropod Pests and Weeds:
A World Review. U. S. Dept.
Agric., Agric. Handbk. No. 480. 545
p. Goeden, R.
D. & L. A. Andrés. 1999.
Biological control of weeds in terrestrial and aquatic
environments. In: Bellows, T. S. & T. W. Fisher (eds.). Handbook of Biological Control: Principles and Applications. Academic Press, San Diego, New York. 1046 p. Harris, P.
1962. Effect of temperature on
fecundity and survival of Chrysolina
quadrigemina (Suffr.) and C. hyperici (Forst.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). Canad. Ent. 94: 774-80. Harris, P.
1967. Suitability of Anaitis plagiata (Geometridae) for biocontrol of Hypericum perforatum in dry grassland of British Columbia. Canad. Ent. 99: 1304-10. Henderson, M. & J. G. Anderson. 1966.
Common weeds in South Africa.
So. Africa Dept. Agric. Tech. Serv., Bot. Res. Inst. Bot. Survey, Mem.
37: 1-440. Holloway, J. K. 1948. Biological
control of Klamath weed--progress report.
J. Econ. Ent. 41: 56-7. Holloway, J. K. 1957. Weed control by
an insect. Scien. Amer. 54: 57-62. Holloway, J. K. 1964. Projects in
biological control of weeds. In: P. DeBach (ed.), Biological Control of Insect Pests and Weeds,
p. 650-70. Reinhold Publ. Corp., New
York. 844 p. Holloway, J. K. & C. B. Huffaker. 1949.
Klamath weed beetles. Calif.
Agric. 3: 3-10. Holloway, J. K. & C. B. Huffaker. 1951.
The role of Chrysolina
gemellata in the biological
control of Klamath weed. J. Econ.
Ent. 44: 244-47. Holloway, J. K. & C. B. Huffaker. 1952.
Insects to control a weed. U.
S. Dept. Agric. Yearbk. 1952: 135-40. Holloway, J. K. & C. B. Huffaker. 1953.
Establishment of the seed weevil, Apion
ulicis Forst., for the
suppression of gorse in California. J. Econ.
Ent. 50: 498-99. Hoy, J.
M. 1963. Present and future
prospects for biological control of weeds.
New Zeal. Sci. Rev. 22: 17-19. Huffaker, C. B. 1948. Kalmath
weed. Calif. Agric. 2: 12. Huffaker, C. B. 1967. A comparison of
the status of biological control of St. John's wort in California and
Australia. Mushi 39 (Sup.): 51-73. Huffaker, C. B. 1957. Fundamentals of
biological control of weeds. Hilgardia
27: 101-57. Huffaker, C.
B. & C. E. Kennett. 1953.
Ecological tests on Chrysolina
gemellata (Rossi) and C. hyperici Forst. in the biological control of Klamath
weed. J. Econ. Ent. 45: 1061-64. Johansson, S.
1962a. Insects associated with
Hypericum L. 1.
Host plant and Coleoptera.
Opuscula Ent. 27: 128-46. Johansson, S.
1962b. Insects associated with
Hypericum L. 2.
Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Homoptera, and general
remarks. Opuscula Ent. 27: 175-92. Kingsbury, J. M. 1964. Poisonous Plants
of the United States and Canada.
Prentice-Hall, Inc., New Jersey.
626 p. Marco, R.
I. 1959. Notes on the
biological control of pests of agriculture in Chile. Food & Agric. Organ. Plant Protect.
Bull. 8: 25-30. McLeod, J.
H. 1962. A review of the
biological control attempts against insects and weeds in Canada. Part I.
Biological control of pests of crops, fruit trees, ornamentals, and
weeds in Canada up to 1959.
Commonwealth Inst. Biol. Control, TEch. Commun. 2: 1-33. Miller, D.
1944. Entomological
investigations. Cawthron Inst.
(Nelson, New Zeal.) Ann. Rept. 1943-1944:
25-26. Miller,
D. 1945. Entomological
investigations. Cawthron Inst.
(Nelson, New Zeal.) Ann. Rept.
1944-1945: 24-25. Miller, D.
1946. Entomological
investigations. Cawthron Inst.
(Nelson, New Zeal.) Ann. Rept.
1945-1946: 310-31. Miller,
D. 1947. Entomological
investigations. Cawthron Inst.
(Nelson, New Zeal.) Ann. Rept.
1946-1947: 34-35. Miller,
D. 1948. Control of St.
John's wort by imported beetle. New
Zeal. J. Agric. 76: 351-52. Miller, D.
1951. Entomological
investigations. Cawthron Inst. (Nelson,
New Zeal.) Ann. Rept. 1950-1951: 31-32. Moore, R. M. & A. B. Cashmore. 1942.
The control of St. John's wort (Hypericum
perforatum L. var angustifolium D.C.) by
competing pasture plants. Austral.
Council Sci. & Indus. Res. Bull. 151:
1-23. Munz, P. A. & D. D. Keck. 1959.
A California Flora. Calif. Univ. Press. 1681 p. Nelson, H. S.
1962. Untersuchungen zur
biologischen Bekämpfung von Hypericum
perforatum L. mit Hilfe von
Insekten, Chrysomela varians Schall., Coleoptera,
und Semasia hypericana Hb.,
Lepidoptera. Ztschr. f. angew. Ent. 50:
290-327. Parsons, W. T.
1957. St. John's wort in
Victoria. History, distribution,
control. Victoria Dept. Agric. J.
55: 781-88. Ritcher, P. O.
1966. Biological control of
insects and weeds in Oregon. Oreg.
Agric. Expt. Sta. Tech. Bull. 90. 39
p. Smith, J. M.
1951. Biological control of
weeds in Canada. Canadian National
Weed Commission, East Sector Proceedings 5:
95-7. Smith, J. M.
1955. Biological control of
common St. John's wort in British Columbia in 1954. Canad. Nat. Weed Comm., East Sect. Proc. 8: 84-8. Smith, J. M.
1958. Biological control of
Klamath weed, Hypericum perforatum L., in British
Columbia. 10th Internatl. Cong. Ent.
Proc. 4: 561-65. Tillyard, R. J. 1927a.
Biological control of St. John's wort. New Zealand J. Agric. 35:
42-5. Tillyard, R. J. 1927b. St. John's
wort--possibility of biological control.
Austral. Council Sci. & Indus. Res. J. 1: 78-80. Tillyard, R. J. 1927c. Insect control
of noxious weeds. Joint scheme
initiated against blackberry and other species. New Zealand J. Agric. 34:
84-90. Tillyard, R. J. 1929. The biological
control of noxious weeds. 4th
Internatl. Cong. Ent. Trans 2: 4-9. Tillyard, R. J. 1930a. The biological
control of noxious weeds. Roy. Soc.
Tasmania Proc. (1929): 41-86. Tillyard, R. J. 1930b. Entomological
control of St. John's wort. First
liberations of Chrysomela
beetles. Austra. Council Sci. &
Indus. Res. J. 3: 231-32. Tillyard, R. J. 1934. The entomological
control of noxious weeds in the Pacific Region. 5th Pacific Sci. Cong. Proc. 5: 3547-57. Tryon, H.
1919. The St. John's wort
pest. Proposal to utilize insect
enemies for its eradication.
Queensland Agric. J. 11:
122-23. Villanueva,
H. L. & G. O. Faure. 1959.
Biological control of St. John's wort in Chile. Food & Agric. Organ. Plant Protect.
Bull. 7: 144-46. Wilson, F.
1943. The entomolgocial
control of St. John's wort (Hypericum
perforatum L.) with special
reference to the insect enemies of the weed in southern France. Austral. Council Sci. & Indus. Res.
Bull. 169: 1-87. Wilson, F.
1960. A review of the
biological control of insects and weeds in Australia and Australian New
Guinea. Commonwealth Inst. Biol.
Control, Tech. Commun. 1. 102 p. Wilson, F.
1953. Progress in the
entomological control of St. John's wort in Australia. 7th Pacific Sci. Cong. Proc. 4: 300-03. Wilson, F.
1963. The results of
biological control investigations in Australia and New Guinea. 9th Pacific Sci. Cong. Proc. (191)9: 112-23. Wilson, F. & T. G. Campbell. 1943.
Recent progress in the entomological control of St. John's wort. Austral. Council Sci. & Indus. Res.
16: 45-56. |
