Media Release
3 July 2008
RE-NOTIFICATION OF APPLICATION FOR BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF TRADESCANTIA
ERMA New Zealand is re-advertising an application to import and release
a Brazilian beetle to control the weed Tradescantia fluminensis,
commonly known as wandering willie.
The original application, from Auckland Regional Council on behalf of a
consortium of regional councils and the Department of Conservation, was
received and public submissions sought late last year.
In the process of considering the application, advice was received from
Landcare Research that additional expert taxonomic research had shown
that the beetle should be called Neolema ogloblini rather than Lema
obscura, noting that both species are extremely similar in appearance
and biology.
General Manager, New Organisms, Libby Harrison said that once advised of
the change, the Authority decided that the application naming the
correct species should be re-notified in the interests both of accuracy
and transparency.
The application is open for
public submissions to ERMA New Zealand until
14 August 2008. As this is a re-notification the online submission form is not available and only email or postal submissions can be made. Please click here to send a
submission by email.
Letters should be posted to
Erma Submissions
PO Box 131
Wellington 6140.
A Question and Answer page
is found here
The application details are available on the ERMA New Zealand website, http://www.ermanz.govt.nz/tradescantia/
For further information contact:
Lesley Meadows, Communications Manager, ERMA New Zealand.
¨ Telephone +64 4 918 4835 ¨ Mobile 021 224 3304
¨ Facsimile +64 4 914 0433
¨ Email: lesley.meadows@ermanz.govt.nz