cheaper to produce in mass rearing than sexuals, and (ii) in classical biocontrol projects they
are more easily established. In Chapter 9, mass production of natural enemies on artificial
media is reviewed, particularly with regard to their quality. Chapter 10 reviews pathogens of
mass-produced natural enemies and pollinators, and the effects of these pathogens on perfor-
mance of the infected organisms.
The fourth section gives an overview of the species of natural enemies that are mass
produced worldwide. Chapter 11 reviews the species that are commercially available.
Chapter 12 discusses mass production, storage, shipment and release of natural enemies. In
Chapter 13 the currently highly relevant topic of risk assessment of exotic natural enemies is
addressed.
The fifth section contains chapters that decribe developments towards quality control
testing of natural enemies. Chapter 14 gives an overview of developments in North America,
and Chapter 15 reviews the European situation. In Chapter 16 an addition to the currently
used laboratory quality control tests is described. Chapter 17 discusses quality in the context
of a biological control agent’s reproductive success in terms of the offsprings’ characteristics
that allow them to maximize their reproduction in the field on the targeted pest.
The sixth and final section deals with actual quality control tests. Chapter 18 illustrates
how quality control of fungal and viral biological control agents can be standardized.
Chapter 19 provides a description of the guidelines that are currently used for quality control
of commercially produced natural enemies, and discusses future improvements of these
guidelines. Chapter 20 presents basic statistical methods for analysis of the data obtained
with the quality control tests of the previous chapter.
The quality control guidelines described in this book will certainly undergo modifications
in the coming years. First, I expect that simple tests will be included to determine the flight
capacity of mass-reared biocontrol agents. Next, semi-field and field performance tests will
be developed. Finally, based on extensive testing by the mass production industry and com-
parison of results of the current tests with those of the new flight and performance tests, a
new set of criteria will likely evolve.
J.C. van Lenteren, October 2002, Perugia, Italy
Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, The Netherlandsx Preface