Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

McCord, Elzie

Area of Concentration

Biology

Abstract

Dioscorea bulbifera L., commonly known as air potato, was introduced to Florida in 1905 by the USDA as a comprehensive plant introduction effort. By the 1940’s air potato was noted as an aggressive weed. It currently covers most of the peninsula of Florida and can be found as far north as the Pan Handle. It is considered to be cold intolerant and probably cannot survive at latitudes north of Florida. Air potato has been considered a category I invasive plant species since 1999. Control efforts include: a) Herbicides: Herbicides should not be used over large urban and suburban acreage because of sensitive plants and animals. This tactic is cost prohibitive. b) Cultural: Cultural controls include digging, pulling, collecting, burning, backyard localized herbiciding and air potato round-ups. c) Biological control: Air potato is widely dispersed and other control methods are not as effective as the leaf beetle, Lilioceris cheni. L. cheni was introduced from its native home range of China and Yunnan Provence in Southeast Asia. USDA APHIS quarantined colonies and tested native plant species to determine if L. cheni was an obligate air potato feeder. Beetles were first released in Florida in 2012. There exists little information on the developmental biology and potential to host switch in SW FL ecosystems. This thesis proposes that research be performed to understand L. cheni, its feeding, overwintering, dispersion, effective air potato control and its potential to become a pest in South West Florida over many developmental generations. Attempts to perform some of the proposed projects were met with dying air potato and disappearing leaf beetles during the fall of 2015. As noted by Center (2013b), air potato beetles either die or become quiescent after vines senesce. This unexpected result nullified these research projects.

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