Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to thank all participants in the EC programme ‘Designing and
implementing quality control of beneficial insects: towards more reliable biological pest
control’. It was very satisfying to see the initially difficult contacts between academia and
industry develop into real collaboration, and this book is the result of that collaboration.
Next, I thank the Entomology Section, Department of Arboriculture and Plant Protection
of the University of Perugia (Italy) for providing space, library facilities and an intellectually
attractive atmosphere during sabbaticals in 2001 and 2002 to work on this book. Particularly I
thank Prof.dr. Ferdinando Bin for his hospitality. Prof. Bin is also thanked for allowing me to
use the scanning electron micrograph picture of Trissolcus basalisfor the cover of this book.
Further, I thank Franz Bigler and Norm Leppla of the global IOBC (International
Organization for Biological Control of Noxious Animals and Weeds) working group ‘Quality
Control of Mass Reared Arthropods’ for helping to develop the initial framework for Quality
Control and Production of Biological Control Agents. All authors are thanked for having been
very cooperative in handing in their manuscript in on time. CAB International, the Journal of
Insect Behavior (Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers) and the journal Environmental
Entomology(Entomological Society of America) are thanked for granting permission to use
earlier published material. Johannes Steidle and Joop van Loon are thanked for allowing me
to use their excellent, and a currently unpublished review paper for updating Chapters 3 and
- The following persons are thanked for reviewing (parts of) chapters: R. Albajes, F. Bigler, F.
Bin, K. Bolckmans, E. Conti, H.M.T. Hokkanen, J. Klapwijk, N. Leppla, A.J.M. Loomans, J.J.A.
van Loon, R.F. Luck, R. Romani, G. Salerno, R.F. Luck, W. Ravensberg, B. Roitberg, P.C.J. van
Rijn, J.L.M. Steidle, M.B. Thomas, M.G. Tommasini, A. van Lenteren and L.E.M. Vet. Wilma
Twigt assisted in the compilation of reference lists. The Foundation for Integrative
Agriculture funded the writing of this book. Lastly, I thank Tim Hardwick, Claire Gwilt,
Rachel Robinson and Elaine Coverdale at CAB International for efficiently taking care of all
matters related to production of this book.
The studies described in several chapters of this book have been carried out with financial
support from the Commission of the European Communities, Agriculture and Fisheries RTD
programme CT93-1076 ‘Designing and implementing quality control of beneficial insects:
towards more reliable biological pest control’, and RTD programme CT97-3489 ‘Evaluating
environmental risks of biological control introductions into Europe’. Ideas expressed in this
book do not necessarily reflect the views of the commission and in no way anticipates the
commission’s future policy in this area.
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