INTRODUCTION TO THE BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY OF THE PROTECTION OF NATIVE FLORAS AND FAUNAS - COMMERCIAL IMPORTATION INTO FLORIDA OF INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS AS BIOLOGICAL-CONTROL AGENTS

A survey of commercial producers and sellers of biological control age nts revealed 49 species of invertebrate animals imported into Florida. Of these, 48 were imported for augmentative biological control of pes ts, and one for educational purposes. There were 3 species of nematode s, 1 mollusc, 8 mites, and 37 insects. More than half (25) of them wer e not known to occur in Florida at the time of importation, and some o f them might be capable of establishing populations in Florida and mig ht serve as classical biological control agents. Targets were mainly p est insects in the orders Homoptera (41%), Diptera (19%), Lepidoptera (15%) and Thysanoptera (11%). The targets were on or in perennial plan ts, annual plants, greenhouses, pasture- and turfgrasses, stored produ cts, and feces of domesticated vertebrates. Some targets of commercial ly-imported biological control agents had been targets of classical bi ological control research. Some agents (''common'') were imported freq uently and by several producers, but others (''uncommon'') were import ed perhaps only once or twice. More targets previously recorded as tar gets of classical biological control agents were associated with ''unc ommon'' commercially-imported agents than with ''common'' ones; more o f the ''common'' agents than the ''uncommon'' ones were released into multiple habitats.