Ecology 6th Edition by Charles Krebs

Exercise 6

Since the accidental introduction of the moth Cactoblastis cactorum into Florida via the Caribbean or South America, there has been great concern that this biocontrol agent could wipe out native species of the Opuntia cactus (Stiling 2002). Pemberton and Liu (2007) found that the impacts of Cactoblastis in the Caribbean were not catastrophic. Read their analysis and discuss why this biocontrol agent may not be as great a risk as originally thought.