Testing the specificity of candidate agents is a key component of risk analysis in weed biological control. This step is often time‐consuming due to the numerous plant species that need to be tested under quarantine conditions in the invaded country of the weed species. Here, we examined whether an abridged phylogenetically based test list could be used in the weed's native range to quickly screen the host specificity of candidate agents. Ten plant species were used to test the host specificity of a promising candidate for the biological control of Sonchus oleraceus in Australia, the gall midge, Cystiphora sonchi. No‐choice and choice tests were carried out in the native Mediterranean range of the midge. The results showed the midge has potential to threaten native Australian species, as those species showed high infestation levels in no‐choice tests and produced significantly higher numbers of galls in choice tests. As a result of this approach, C. sonchi was rapidly discarded from the list of agents to be imported into Australian quarantines for further tests. This study demonstrates that testing a few key phylogenetically related species in the native range may save cost and effort in a weed biological control programme.

中文翻译：

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使宿主特异性测试更有效：探索使用删节的测试植物列表

测试候选药物的特异性是杂草生物防治风险分析的关键组成部分。由于需要在杂草入侵国的检疫条件下对众多植物物种进行测试，因此该步骤通常很耗时。在这里，我们检查了是否可以在杂草的原生范围中使用基于系统发育的删节测试列表来快速筛选候选药剂的宿主特异性。使用 10 种植物来测试澳大利亚 Sonchus oleraceus 生物防治有希望的候选物——瘿蚊 Cystiphora sonchi 的宿主特异性。无选择和选择测试是在当地地中海地区的蠓中进行的。结果表明，这种蠓有可能威胁到澳大利亚本土物种，因为这些物种在无选择测试中表现出高感染水平，并在选择测试中产生显着更多的虫瘿。由于采用了这种方法，C.sonchi 很快就被从进口到澳大利亚隔离区进行进一步检测的病原体清单中剔除。这项研究表明，在本地范围内测试一些关键的系统发育相关物种可以节省杂草生物控制计划的成本和工作量。