Acknowledgements

The Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is acknowledged for its financial support to the development of a biocontrol solution for fireweed.

Our research is kindly supported by the Bega Valley Fireweed Association (BVFA). We wish to pay our respects in particular to Noel Watson, who has been an enduring champion of the fireweed biocontrol research, with his advocacy stemming back to the commencement of the BVFA in 2005: https://fireweed.org.au/about-the-bega-valley-fireweed-association/.

Research in South Africa is being led by Dr Terry Olckers and Dr Daniella Egli (University of KwaZulu-Natal). We thank Dr Rolf Oberprieler (Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO) for assisting with insect identification, and Dr Alexander N. Schmidt-Lebuhn (National Research Collections Australia CSIRO) for resolving phylogenetic relationships amongst Senecio species to inform host-specificity testing.

Dr Ben Gooden (CSIRO) is currently leading the program (Ben.Gooden@csiro.au).