Arkansas State University Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States
Understanding the mechanisms behind successful establishment and impact of introduced insects is vital for preventing and mitigating invasion. Classical biological control agents, which share characteristics with undesirable species, are an underutilized resource that can provide researchers with an unconventional model by which to study mechanisms of species invasion. We modeled data from three existing biological control databases, supplemented by refereed and gray literature, to determine which factors drive the establishment and impact of phytophagous and entomophagous insects in natural ecosystems. We found that phytophagous insect establishment is driven by host specialization and coevolution with a plant host, and the most impactful phytophagous biological control agents are those that are (i) coevolved with their plant hosts, (ii) feed on plant structures that are not easily restored, or are (iii) released in an area with a climate similar to their native range. Entomophagous insects are more likely to establish and have an impact if they are coevolved with their insect host or are a host specialist. These findings are also similar to recent research demonstrating the importance of evolutionary history in predicting invasion success, and they support the importance of evolutionary history with evidence from an independent dataset. With additional data and increased accessibility, biological control datasets could become increasingly useful to understand mechanisms of invasion.
