Assessing the suitability and safety of a well-known bud-galling wasp, Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae, for biological control of Acacia longifolia in Portugal

Acacia longifolia is a widespread invasive plant species in Portugal. In South Africa, it is controlled by a bud-galling wasp, Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae, which could also be used in Portugal. Biological control of invasive alien plants has received little consideration anywhere in Europe and has never been attempted in Portugal. The lack of a suitably-large quarantine facility necessitated the use of a novel approach to test non-target species in Portugal. Mature T. acaciaelongifoliae galls were shipped to Portugal from South Africa to obtain adult female wasps which were confined in Petri dishes each with a bud-bearing branch of one of 40 non-target plant species. The time spent by the wasps exploring and probing the buds was measured after which buds were dissected to detect any egg deposition. The results showed that T. acaciaelongifoliae did not respond to the buds of most (23) species. The females spent time on the buds of the other 17 species but only laid eggs in three species besides A. longifolia. Oviposition on Acacia melanoxylon was expected but was not anticipated on Vitis vinifera, vines, (where eggs were deposited externally in the pubescent coat of the buds) or on Cytisus striatus, broom, (where eggs were inserted into the buds as they are on A. longifolia). Subsequent trials on potted plants showed that galls only developed on A. longifolia. Field surveys in South Africa and Australia showed that galls never occur on either vines or broom. The implications of these findings for the use of T. acaciaelongifoliae for biological control of A. longifolia in Portugal are considered in relation to the wealth of experience and knowledge about the specificity of the wasp and the reliability of conducting host-specificity tests under confined conditions of cages

Hellish Falls: Faustus’s Dismemberment, Phaeton’s Limbs and Other Renaissance Aviation Disasters – Part I

With its aerial voyages and ominous allusions to the failed aviators Icarus, Lucifer and Simon Magus, Doctor Faustus presents an uncanny commentary on the Renaissance dream of flight. This article uncovers Marlowe’s infatuation with human flight as the ultimate act of physical, intellectual and spiritual trangression. So the grisly addition to the B-text, in which a group of scholars examine—like a forensics team at a crash site—the carnage of Faustus’s “mangled limbs”, is more than a lurid flourish. Mangled limbs are splattered all over the annals of pre-modern aviation. While implicating the play in Renaissance aeronautics, this study of Faustus also has some eye-opening implications for theatre history. Faustus was penned at a time when on-stage ascents and descents became increasingly feasible, and Marlowe’s Icarian muse may have spurred the Admiral’s Men to interpolate more spectacular flying effects, taking advantage of the throne, pulleys and dragons recorded in Henslowe’s Diary. The revisions to Faustus not only showcase the flight-simulation capabilities of the Admiral’s playhouses but also associate Marlowe’s conjuror with other presumptuous aeronauts in the company’s repertoire. In particular, Part II of this essay (to be published in a forthcoming issue of English Studies) will argue that Faustus’s “hellish fall” and dismemberment mirrors that of Phaeton, the titular protagonist of a lost play performed by the Admiral’s Men in 1598. While reading the fall of these characters as a literal enactment of de casibus tragedy, Part II concludes that the increasingly sophisticated aerial stunts reflect a technological optimism about transhuman flight that undercuts the Chorus’s warning not to “practice more than heavenly power permits”