DOI: 10.5061/dryad.f4392
title: Data from: Inadvertent biological control: an Australian thrips killing an invasive New Zealand tree in California

description: Transport hubs of international trade and tourism are sites of
 unprecedented long-distance dispersal of species and novel ecological
 interactions. In cases of invasive plants released from their specialist
 natural enemies, novel interactions with both resident enemies and new
 arrivals can accumulate and potentially reduce weed competitiveness. I
 present here one dramatic example of this, where an invasive woody weed in
 southern California is being rapidly controlled by an accidentally
 introduced genus-specialist herbivorous insect. The New Zealand native
 shrub/small tree, Myoporum laetum, is a long-time popular ornamental plant
 in California and has become an invasive woody weed. In 2005, a
 Myoporum-specific thrips, Klambothrips myopori, was discovered (and
 described) in California feeding on M. laetum leaves. Several searches
 have failed to find K. myopori in New Zealand and a population has
 recently been discovered in Tasmania, Australia, feeding on Myoporum
 insulare. In 5 years, K. myopori has killed off about half of southern
 Californian M. laetum with almost all surviving individuals being
 gradually defoliated. Inadequate border biosecurity has resulted in
 inadvertent biological control, in a rapid timeframe, caused by a novel
 enemy. Unfortunately, K. myopori has subsequently been accidentally
 transported from California to Hawaii where it is now killing off Hawaiian
 native Myoporum sandwicense. Transport hubs can both connect weeds with
 natural enemies and disperse those enemies more widely.
description: California ngaio plant
 damage survey dataThis file contains the
 health status of ngaio plants (Myoporum laetum) in various stages of
 defoliation by the invasive thrips, Klambothrips myopori in coastal
 southern California. The data are a mix of field observations and earlier
 satellite image information of the same plants between 2004 and 2011. The
 field observations include two levels of rapid data collection. At a
 minimum the rows contain whether or not the plant was alive and the extent
 of defoliation and thrips infested shoots. In some years at some sites,
 plant size was also recorded. See the ReadMe file for more
 details.CAngaio.csvDrive-by transect observations of planted Myoporum laetumThe presence (or coarse abundance) of New Zealand ngaio (Myoporum laetum) and whether or not there is obvious damage from Klambothrips myopori herbivory, recorded per mile using a car odometer while a passenger through various Southern California routes. The routes are described in this text file and provided in a kmz (Google Earth file) in the subsequent file. Klambothrips myopori is a recent arrival to California and has reached high densities where it causes prominent crown dieback, easily visible from a car.thrips driveby transect data.csvDrive-by transect routesA Google Earth kmz file containing vectors of the three Southern California routes along which I surveyed for New Zealand ngaio (Myoporum laetum) and visible damage by the recenly arrived and outbreaking herbivore, Klambothrips myopori. See the associated csv file for the observations.drive-by transects 2011.kmz