Host Specificity Tests of Gratiana Graminea (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), A Poteneial Biological Control Agent of Tropical Soda Apple, Solanum Viarum (Solanaceae) (Report‪)‬

Tropical soda apple, Solanum viarum Dunal (Solanaceae), is a perennial weed, originally from northeast Argentina, southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, that has been spreading throughout Florida at an alarming rate during the last two decades. The pasture-land infested in 1992 was estimated to be approximately 60,000 hectares (Mullahey et al. 1993), and increased to more than 300,000 hectares in 1995-96 (Mullahey et al. 1997). Currently, the infested area is estimated at more than 400,000 hectares (Medal et al. 2008). Tropical soda apple, first reported in the United States in Glades County, Florida in 1988 (Coile 1993; Mullahey & Colvin 1993), is also present in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Puerto Rico (Bryson & Byrd, Jr. 1996; Dowler 1996; Mullahey et al. 1997; Medal et al. 2003). The potential range of tropical soda apple in the United States may be extended even further based on studies of the effects of temperatures and photoperiods conducted by Patterson (1996) in controlled environmental chambers. This invasive exotic weed was placed on the Florida and Federal Noxious Weed Lists in 1995. In addition to its invasion of pasture lands and reduction of cattle carrying capacity (Mullahey et al. 1993; Bredow et al. 2007), tropical soda apple is known to harbor at least 6 viruses that affect cultivated solanaceous crops such as tomato, tobacco, and pepper (McGovern et al. 1994a, 1994b, 1996). Tropical soda apple is also an alternative host for key pests such as the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), major defoliating insect pest of potato in North America; the tomato hornworm, Manduca quinquemaculata (Haworth) and the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta (L.), (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae), major pests of tomato and tobacco plants; the silverleaf whitefly, Bemisia argentifolii Bellows and Perring (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) one of the most troublesome insect pest worldwide of many ield and vegetable crops; the tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens (Fabr.) (Lepdoptera: Noctuidae) one of the most destructive pests of tobacco; the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer) an important pest of peach trees and vector of plant viruses to solanaceous plants and other food crops (Homoptera: Aphididae); the southern green stinkbug, Nezara viridula (L.) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) an important pest of soybean and vegetable crops; and the suckfly, Tupiocoris notatus (Distant) (Hemiptera: Miridae) a pest of several crops including tobacco (Habeck et al. 1996; Medal et al. 1999a; Sudbrink et al. 1999). Although it is very difficult to estimate the real (direct and indirect) economic losses due to this invasive weed, the production loss to Florida ranchers by tropical soda apple was estimated from $6.5-16 million annually (Thomas 2007).