Cactoblastis cactorum(Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) in the United States: An Immigrant Biological Control Agent or an Introduction of the Nursery Industry?

Miami APHIS–Plant Protection ' Quarantine records showed 13 Cactoblastis cactorin Bergroth interceptions in commercial nursery imports of Opuntia from the Dominican Republic between 1981 and 1986. These interceptions and the large volume of underinspected cacti that have been imported from the Dominican Republic and other countries with C. cactorum suggest that the moth may have entered Florida as an unintended commercial introduction. The present problem with C. cactorum relates the difficulty of preventing pest introductions with commercial plant imports and, to a lesser degree, the historical introduction of the moth to the Caribbean and habitat destruction that has contributed to the rarity of some American Opuntia .