The implications of rapid evolution for safety and effectiveness of biological weed control

How does rapid evolutionary adaptation of biological control agents to climate factors affect their host specificity and potential to control target species? We conducted reciprocal transplant experiments with locally adapted mountain and valley genotypes of the cinnabar moth, Tyria jacobaeae, a biological control agent of the invasive weed Jacobaea vulgaris. At a mountain and a valley location we exposed the target and a non-target host plant (Senecio triangularis) to both cinnabar moth genotypes and measured the development time and survival of individual insect families as well as their impact on plant growth and reproductive parameters. We show how to determine the importance of rapid evolution for biological control safety and efficacy and suggest guidelines for screening control organisms based on evolutionary potential.