The Diversity and Natural Enemies of Eupatorium adenophorum and

Native Plants

Jiangfei Qian

, Tianyu Li

, Lidan Mu

, Yuankai Xia

, Qing Ji

1,2,* e

and Ruifang Wang

1,2,* f

College of Agriculture and Forestry, Puer University, Puer, Yunnan, 665000, China

Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla 6663, China

Keywords: Eupatorium adenophorum, Diversity, Biocontrol.

Abstract: The diversity and natural enemies of invasive Eupatorium adenophorum in invaded areas were investigated

in border city in Yunnan Province. The results showed that E. adenophorum affected the growth of

accompanying plants through shading. Because the plant richness was greater in Menghai and Ninger in dry

season, thus the inhibitory effect of E. adenophorum on native plants was lower, while opposite in Baoshan.

Aphids can feed on E. adenophorum. Therefore, it is hopeful to find biocontrol organisms in Yunnan.

1 INTRODUCTION

Eupatorium adenophorum is an ornamental plant,

native to Mexico and Costa Rica in Central America.

It has been introduced as an ornamental plant to

Europe, Oceania and Asia, and is widely distributed

in more than 30 countries and regions in the tropical,

subtropical and temperate regions. In the early 1950s,

E. adenophorum was introduced into southern

Yunnan Province from the border between China and

Myanmar, and has caused serious harms (Yang

2003). A large number of studies have shown that E.

adenophorum has a high allelopathic potential, and its

allelopathic effect has a great influence on most

plants to achieve the purpose of invasion (Liu 2018).

In this study, the community composition and natural

enemies of E. adenophorum in invaded border cities

in Yunnan Province were investigated. We try to

learn more about the invasive mechanisms and look

forward to find biocontrol organisms of E.

adenophorumin Yunnan.

Biological control, can be broadly divided into

three categories: insect, bird and bacteria control. It is

a way to reduce the population density of pests such

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7173-2132

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2807-1172

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4334-698X

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5137-0242

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4126-7137

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4715-6240

as weeds and pests. Biological control is a pollution-

free, low-cost, non-resistant, long-lasting prevention

and control methods. Using biological control

methods is hopeful (animals, plants and

microorganisms, etc.), such as native generalist

enemies, to control the population density of E.

adenophorum under the level of ecological and

economic hazards of the anti-removal method.

The control of E.adenophorum has been under

much research since 2003, when it was listed as the

first invasive alien species in China, published by the

State Environmental Protection Administration and

the Chinese Academy of Sciences. There are some

good prevention and control methods, but it is

difficult to achieve large area control. So until now,

E.adenophorum has not been well controlled.

Procecidochares utilis is a special predatory

predator of E.adenophorum that can hinder the

growth and reproduction of E.adenophorum, which

has been studied both at home and abroad. China

introduced P. utilis from the 1980s. P. utilis crossed

the Himalayas into Tibet, and then from Tibet into

Yunnan and gradually spread to Sichuan, Guizhou

and other places. Although its natural enemy P. utilis

Qian, J., Li, T., Mu, L., Xia, Y., Ji, Q. and Wang, R.

The Diversity and Natural Enemies of Eupatorium adenophorum and Native Plants.

DOI: 10.5220/0011280900003443

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics (ICBEB 2022), pages 729-733

ISBN: 978-989-758-595-1

729

have been introduced to prevent and control E.

adenophorum, the E. adenophorum population has

not been effectively controlled.

The adaptability and competitiveness of E.

adenophorum make it possible to quickly form a

single-advantaged community and spread wildly in

south China, bringing harm to native plants, animals

and even humans, and causing great losses to

agriculture, ecology and economy (Wan 2011).

Facing the increasingly serious problem of E.

adenophorum, the current control method is

inefficient and expensive, how to use effective means

to control the expansion of E. adenophorum should

be the main topic of future research. According to

Wang Yongda et al., there are mainly ecological

engineering methods, biological control methods,

chemical control methods and mechanical control

methods (Zhou 2009). For example, it can be

developed other values, use it as feeding through

fermentation and detoxification, and make use of it to

manufacture fiberboard and biogas. Artificial,

mechanical and chemical control methods,

combined with ecological control measures, should

be used to prevent the invasion of E.adenophorum, so

as to achieve the purpose of replacing economic

plants. Not only that, there are many uses of

E.adenophorum, which is not a few research. For

example, it can kill animal parasites, be developed as

raw material for animal feed, and have analgesic

effect on wounds caused by acetic acid, etc.

E.adenophorum can be damaged by manual or

mechanical means . Although this method is simple,

but it costs labor and time, and the terrain is difficult

to implement. It is advisable to the local area with

light harm and the newly introduced area, but not

feasible to the area with serious harm. This method is

hard to be applied in a wide range because of its high

labor intensity and low labor efficiency. After

elimination in this way, the initiation of soil residual

roots and the colonization of new seedlings make the

success rate not high. Due to the complexity of its

habitats, where E.adenophorum occurs, such as steep

slopes, sporadic edges, arable land and under open

forest, etc., it is mechanically controlled are very

limited (Liu 1985).

Numerous studies have shown that the plant has a

high allelopathic potential, and its allelopathic effects

affect most plants such as Eucalyptus robusta Smith,

Pinus yunnanensis Cunninghamia lanceolata, etc.

Thus the extracts had strong fumigation activity

against four kinds of stored grain pests, such as rice

weasels, maize weasels, mung bean weasels and vata

bean weasels. After being fumigated at 44.44 mg/L

for 48 h, the mortality rate of each adult insect

reached 100%. The results of fumigation showed that

the LC50 of E.adenophorum extract against the four

kinds of adults were 14.65, 12.80, 25.07 and 12.20

mg/L for 24 h, and the semi-lethal dose for 48 h were

11.79, 9.67, 13.29 and 9.76 mg/L, respectively.

Although several natural enemies have been

found and damaged on E. adenophorum in invaded

areas (Zhao 1989, Xiang 1991, Wang 2002), such as

Dihammus argentatusye, which can eat

E.adenophorum, has also been found locally in

Wales, Australia, and aphids have also been found to

be able to pick up purple stalks, and microbially,

Cercospora is also a candidate for the control of

E.adenophorum, we we don't know is there any

natural enemy that can control this plant in the bio

rich Yunnan.

The purpose of our survey was to prepare for the

search of natural enemies of E.adenophorum, mainly

by investigating the diseases and insect pests of

E.adenophorum in different habitats in Yunnan

province. Through the investigation of the habitat,

diseases and insect pests of E.adenophorum, a better

foundation is laid for the control of E.adenophorum,

so as to control its expansion as soon as possible,

prevent E.adenophorum from seizing the living space

of other species, destroying ecological balance and

destroying biodiversity .

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Sample Site and Survey Method

The selection was made at four different locations in

Yunnan Province: Ninger, Jiangcheng, Menghai and

Baoshan. Ninger, Jiangcheng in Pu'er City (between

22°02′～24°50′ N, 99°09′～102°19′ E) belongs to the

subtropical monsoon climate, the average annual

temperature in 10℃ ～ 13℃, the average monthly

temperature between 18℃～25℃, the light and heat

conditions are good, year-round frost-free, winter

without cold, summer without heat. The altitude is

between 376 and 3306 meters, with annual rainfall of

1100～2780 mm. With mountain, hilly, valley, basin

and other types of landscape, it is an important area

of biodiversity protection in China. Menghai is

located in Xishuangbanna, Xishuangbanna is located

in the southernmost tip of Yunnan Province, the

China, located at about 21°10′ north latitude, 99°55′

～ 101°50′ east longitude, is a tropical humid area

south of the Northern Regression Line. Baoshan,

Yunnan Province, located in the southwest of Yunnan

Province, 98°25′～100°02′ east longitude and 24°08′

ICBEB 2022 - The International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics

730

～25°51′ north latitude, is a low-latitude mountain

subtropical monsoon climate, due to its location in the

low-latitude plateau, the terrain is complex. Climate

types are North Tropical, South Asia Tropical,

Central Asian Tropical, North Subtropical, Southern

Temperate, Mid temperate and Plateau climate a total

of 7 climate types. Because of its border with

Myanmar, it was considered to be the only way that

E. adenophorum invaded.

Sampling survey was carried out in four different

sites in Yunnan Province, and 3-4 were selected from

3-4 directions in each place to investigate E.

adenophorum and native accompanying in the

respectively. Then 5 plants were randomly selected

from E. adenophorum and 10 leaves were selected

from the second functional leaf to measure their

damaged area. The same method was used for each

accompanying to select 5 leaves from each plant to

measure its damaged area.

2.2 Plant Diversity

2.2.1 Species Richness Index (Yu 2005)

LnNsDMA /)1( −=

Species richness index indicates the number of

species in a certain size, ignoring the number of

individuals between species.

2.2.2 Simpson Diversity Index (D)

Simpson's diversity index is the probability that two

sampled at random belong to different species, which

is equal to 1 minus the probability that two sampled

at random belong to the same species.

𝐷=1−𝑃









，P



In the formula, D is Simpson index, ni is the

number of

individuals of the ith species, the lowest

value of Simpson index is 0, and the highest value

is (1-1/S).

2.2.3 Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index (Yu

2005, Zhang 2006)

H=−P







log(Pi)

In the form, Pi-ni/N represents the proportion of

individuals belonging to the ith species in the sample,

N is the sum of the number of all species, ni is the

number of individuals in the ith species, and S is the

number of species in the community.

Table 1: Species diversity in dry season.

SN Jiang

cheng

Ning

Bao

shan

Meng

hai

14.7±3.8 5.3±0.9 4.0±0.6 7.3±0.7

RI 0.0±0.0 0.0±0.0 0 0.0±0.0

SI 0.8±0.4 0.7±0.2 0.8±0.0 0.0±0.0

SW 2.9±0.4 2.1±0.0 2.4±0.2 2.7±0.2

EI 1.1±0.1 1.4±0.2 1.8±0.1 1.4±0.1

(SN: Sample name, SN1: Species number, RI: Richness

Index, SI: Simpson index, SW: Shannon Wiener, EI:

Evenness index,the same as below.)

Table 2: Species diversity in rainy season.

SN Jiang

cheng

Ning

Bao

shan

Meng

hai

15.7±1.5 14.0±1.2 11.0±2.1 14.0±1.5

RI 0.9±0.0 0.9±0.0 0.9±0.0 0.9±0.0

SI 0.9±0.0 0.9±0.0 0.9±0.0 0.9±0.0

SW 3.6±0.6 3.6±0.1 3.8±0.1 3.7±0.1

EI 1.3±0.1 1.9±0.1 1.6±0.1 1.4±0.1

Table 3: The plant height and damaged ratio.

Sample

name

Plant Height (cm) Damage

ratio (%)

Baoshan

1 (N=3) 103.05±5.76 7.72±0.88

2(n=9) 68.70±36.67 13.13±2.84

Menghai 1 (N=3) 138.85±8.02 6.46±1.16

2(n=10) 115.44±21.48 16.81±4.02

Ninger 1 (N=4) 86.9±6.26 8.36±2.16

2 (n=13) 71.29±12.66 9.14±2.22

Baoshan

1(N=3) 122.93±11.57 11.45±1.83

2 (n=4) 52.35±27.67 13.18±5.67

Menghai

1(N=3) 126.33±9.23 6.54±1.63

2 (n=5) 122.13±37.43 4.11±3.59

Ninger

1(N=4) 118.00±5.78 8.4±1.26

2 (n=5) 106.50±14.40 8.06±7.61

(SE: standard error, 1: E. adenophorum, 2: Native paints, S:

season,DS: dry season, RS: rainy season)

(N represents the number of repeat value in the sample plot

of E. adenophorum, and n represents the number of repeat

value in the sample plot of native plants.)

2.2.4 Pielou Evenness Index (Liu 1994)

max/ HHJsw =

)(max sLnH =

The Pielou Uniformity Index, which partly reflects

the uniformity of genus composition, is the

distribution of the number of individuals of all species

in a community or habitat.

The Diversity and Natural Enemies of Eupatorium adenophorum and Native Plants

731

2.3 Results and Analysis

Independent sample T-test was carried out on the

comparison between invasive E. adenophorum and its

native accompanying plants in the richness,

uniformity, Simpson index, plant height and damaged

ratio.

3 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

3.1 Species Diversity

Table 4: Representative native plants.

The Latin name

Familia Genus Numbe

idens

ilosa L

Asteracea Bidens 614

geratum conyzoides

Asteracea Ageratum 259

atorium odratum L

Asteracea Eu

atorium 205

Oplismentls

undulati

olius

Gramineae Oplismentls 473

rmgrass

Gramineae Oplismenus 469

Digitaria sanguinalis (L.)

Scop.

Gramineae Digitaria 379

Desmodium racemosum

Thunb

Leguminosae sp. Desmodium Desv 166

Lespedeza cuneata

(Dum.Cours.) G.Don.

Leguminosae sp. Lespedeza Michx. 40

Indi

era

icata Forss

uminosae

. Indi

era L 31

(In this table, we selected three representative plants

of Compositae, Gramineae and Legume that have the

largest number of associated plants in

E.adenophorum. orchid community)

The accompanying plants most in three families:

Compositae, Gramineae and Legume, while there

were only 3-5 species in other families. According to

the survey, Bidens pilosa L has the largest number.

The second is Ageratum conyzoides, which has a

strong growth capacity and has a large density in the

sample. There are 16 accompanying species of

Gramineae. The most abundant are O undulatifolius

folius, Armgrass, Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop and

Imperata cylindrica (Linn.) Beauv.

Species richness of E. adenophorum was very

low, and species diversity of E. adenophorum was

relatively uniform. It has an inhibitory effect on the

growth of other plants and seriously damages the

biodiversity of the community. Jiangcheng had the

highest number of species. Overall, there are more

plant species in the rainy season than in the dry season

and plants species richness is uniform.

3.2 The Plant Height and Damaged

Ratio

In the dry season, the plant height of E. adenophorum

in Baoshan was higher than that of the native plants,

and the damage was lower than that of the native

plants. There was no significant difference between

E. adenophorum and native plants in Menghai and

Ninger. Therefore, it is expected to find the natural

enemies of E. adenophorum in Menghai and Ninger.

During the rainy season, there was no significant

difference in the damage of E. adenophorum and

native plants. By comparing the difference of the

damage in the dry season with that in the rainy season,

the insects in the rainy season had a certain selectivity

to the plant feeding of E. adenophorum community.

3.3

Natural Enemies

Figure 1. E. adenophorum and enemies.

Brevicoryne brassicae feeding on E. adenophorum

and can survive. In addition, other natural enemies,

such as Psychomyiidae, Fruticicolidae were all found

herbivory on E. adenophorum.

ICBEB 2022 - The International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics

732

4 DISCUSSION AND

CONCIUSIONS

The three most abundant accompanyingin E.

adenophorum community are compositae, legumes

and gramineae. E. adenophorum crowded out the

plants through severe shading especially in rainy

season.

As the history of E. adenophorum invasion

lengthened, native insects began feeding on E.

adenophorum Studies have shown that there are 168

species of local insects in the invasive community of

E. adenophorum, which play a certain role in resisting

the invasion of E. adenophorum. In this study, several

natural enemies were found to feed on E.

adenophorum. It is possible to find biocontrol

organisms in Yunnan Provinces.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by the National Natural

Science Foundation of China (31660170), Yunnan

Fundamental Research Projects (grant NO.

202101AU070030) and Outstanding Young Teacher

program (2020GGJS006).

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